patent no. 17,704 · dr. e. m. holroyd-blunt · 1914
an armchair with mechanical assistance toward a conclusion
an upholstered armchair, in the style of the medical alienists, with a head-clamp, a forehead piston, and a footrest that kicks at a regular interval of fourteen seconds. all three are driven by a brass crank beside the chair, turned, in holroyd-blunt's clinic, by a junior attendant. the chair is intended to assist the sitter in arriving at a conclusion.
the chair does assist. the difficulty is that the conclusion is always the conclusion of the attendant turning the crank. the sitter, kicked by the foot-rest and pressed gently in the forehead, finds it almost impossible to disagree with anything proposed by the operator. holroyd-blunt's clinic produced, in six months, more decisions than any household has ever needed, and almost all of them were the attendant's. the patients went home certain and unfamiliar to themselves.
the chair is now considered a furniture piece. without the attendant, it is only an armchair with a clamp on it, which is to say, a slightly uncomfortable place to wait.
field-note · do not engage the foot-rest before the kettle. the timing will be off all afternoon.
apology machine · silence box · self-winding book · a chair · patience