What is an adjustable chair?
Our adjustable stools and chairs are equipped with a threaded rod allowing you to set the perfect height. The principle behind our height-adjustable chairs is simple:
The chair’s 4 feet meet under the seat and are fixed to a central boss into which is fitted the screw thread. The seat top is fixed to a threaded rod.
Adjust the height up or down simply by turning the seat.
These classic working chairs have a long history in the industrial world.
From the mid-19th Century, at the height of the industrial revolution, production lines became the norm, and workers who had previously spent their shift simply standing, or sitting on poorly-designed chairs that didn’t meet their needs, required seats of different heights to for long and often repetitive tasks.
The story of the adjustable chair
The first adjustable chair was patented in 1857 by the American inventor Thomas E. Warren, but it wasn’t until the start of the 20th Century that these height-adjustable seats would become common in the workplace.
From the 1880s onwards, numerous manufacturers in England, America and France would invent rotating workshop chairs and stools.
In the USA, the American Seating Company began production of height-adjustable classroom chairs in 1884.
In 1887, the English company Heywood-Wakefield began marketing swivelling metal chairs for equipping workshops.
In the 1920s and 1930s, American companies like Lyon Workspace Products, and Uline would begin marketing chairs and stools with adjustable seats using worm drives.
Around 1910 in France, some of the best known companies such as Bienaise, Flambo, and Singer created adjustable chairs made in metal and wood, and cast iron and wood.
The birth of the Dactylo and Dessinateur chairs
In the 1950s, the NICOLLE company created two adjustable swivel chairs with adjustable height:
Fully-adjustable from 45 to 60cm, the DACTYLO chair takes its name from the French abbreviated word for typing, and was especially designed as office furniture for typists who needed their seat to be at the perfect height to ensure their forearms are perfectly level with the keyboard.
Similarly, the DESSINATEUR or ‘draftsman’ chair is fully-adjustable from 65 to 80cm and was originally marketed to architects and industrial designers who worked at drawing tables which were also height-adjustable.
These chairs were later sold to factories and workshops to satisfy the need for ergonomic furniture in the industrial environment.
Why choose an adjustable chair?
Today, there is a wide range of settings requiring chairs and stools that adapt precisely to the height of the desktop or workbench.
CHAISES NICOLLE decided to reissue our DACTYLO and DESSINATEUR chairs and stools which became celebrated for their revolutionary ergonomics and comfort right from their conception.
These seats fit perfectly with your kitchen worktop or around a high table or bar, or even just round your dining table of desk.
Which chair or stool is right for you?
Metal Collection
Wood & Metal Collection
Loom & Metal Collection
Outdoor Collection
