Centripetal Spring Armchair

[1] The chair exhibited all features of today's office chairs except adjustable lumbar support:[2] it allowed tilt movement in all directions and had a revolving seat, caster wheels for ease of movement, as well as a headrest and armrests in the armchair variant.

Tilting was achieved through the flexion of the four large C-shaped steel springs on which the seat rested, using the sitter's feet as a fulcrum.

[3] The modernity of its design, which included an innovative use of cast iron for the frame, was visually downplayed by hiding the springs behind a dense passementerie (an elaborate trim) and by rendering the frame in the nostalgic, gilded Rococo Revival[4] style.

[5] After it was first presented at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London,[6] the chair had little success outside the US: it was deemed immoral because it was too comfortable.

The Victorian morality of the time valued rigid, unsupportive seats that allowed sitters to demonstrate refinement, willpower and morality through an upright posture.