Before the availability of high-quality ergonomic bespoke office furniture, before the development of the open-plan office and, in fact, before the existence of ergonomics or the office as a concept, we had office chairs.
As early as 1505, the Codex Loffelholz featured an alarmingly prescient sketch of a chair that, ornate wood carvings aside, is a mainstay of office furniture to this very day.
Similarly, the ever-curious and busy Charles Darwin put castors onto his armchair at his home in Down house so he could reach the specimens in his study quicker.
As businesses shifted and expanded, with a greater need for employees who would regularly work at a desk, older, more rigid furniture designs were simply no longer suitable.
The solution to this however was a chair that was a century ahead of its time and one that was both celebrated and controversial in equal measure, eventually inventing an entirely new design philosophy.
The 19th century is the start of modern furniture history, with a breakneck pace fitting for the industrial revolution of which it was a major if unheralded part.
The development of the railway meant that people were much freer to travel for both work and pleasure alike, and businesses could far more easily expand beyond a local family business.
However, this innovation also meant that businesses had larger administrative responsibilities. There were more invoices to file, orders to manage, books to balance and letters to read and respond to.
This meant that dedicated administrative staff needed to be hired in order to keep up with demand.
These new employees would be primarily working at desks and managing large numbers of files and documents, often having to repeatedly get up and sit down to reach files, slowing down productivity and increasing potential strain.
The ideal solution would be to have a chair that provides enough freedom of movement that someone does not need to leave their chair to reach anything they need comfortably, allowing employees to stay seated for far longer than you would see with more static chairs.
Eventually, this would take the form of the Centripetal Spring Armchair, patented by the mysterious Thomas E. Warren and made from cast iron in 1849.
However, when it was first displayed at the 1851 Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in London it inspired two highly differing reactions.
For American visitors, delegates and journalists who saw the same potential Mr Warren did, it was highly acclaimed and praised for being highly comfortable and convenient, described as a credit to American industry and design.
However, for those exact reasons, it was criticised by others, particularly in the United Kingdom, to the point that it was considered to be immorally comfortable.
Some context doubtless is required for this; during the Victorian era, there was a somewhat puritanical moral code which emphasised demonstrating willpower, resilience and therefore moral righteousness through proper, painfully upright posture.
There was also a general preference for static ornateness over practicality, which meant that the office chair as we know it was rejected for years outside of specialist fields such as the barbershop.
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