The Swivel Chair

Ritva in her office chair

The Swivel Chair

Using an English-style Windsor chair president Thomas Jefferson invented the first swivel chair. Jefferson heavily modified the Windsor chair and incorporated top and bottom parts connected by a central iron spindle, enabling the top half known as the seat, to swivel on casters of the type used in rope-hung windows. When the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, Jefferson's swivel chair is purported to be where he drafted the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776.