A Mechanical Rocking Chair?

[4DThinker]

This chair has survived from the '80s although the rubber part of the casters has gone chalky white. 

More background and photos of a production version made from maple can be found here.  Designed to rock from horizontal to a forward perched position.  This Bubinga version was my initial prototype.  Have you ever sat in a Balans chair? 

4D

Edited July 24, 2022 by 4DThinker

[lew]

Don't think my old knees could take sitting in that for an extended period of time.

[4DThinker]

9 minutes ago, lew said:

Don't think my old knees could take sitting in that for an extended period of time.

Exactly why you don't see them so frequently any more. A fad looking for historical relevance. This one and the original rocking Balans chair can tip back to a level seating position.  

https://varierchairs.com/kneeling-chairs/variable-balans/

4D

[Fred W. Hargis Jr]

I have, and it was back in the 80s. Part of a safety meeting at work dealing with the office group and bad chair posture. The plant bought 2 for the folks to try out, one looked a little (kinda, sorta) like the pic you show, the second looked a little like the one below. I found them not that bad to sit in, at least for a short while. The claim was it was impossible to have bad posture in that chair. My attraction to them was that it would be harder for the employees to fall asleep with one of them (small problem in the accounting office) ....but they still never caught on.

[4DThinker]

3 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

 My attraction to them was that it would be harder for the employees to fall asleep with one of them (small problem in the accounting office) ....but they still never caught on.

The one I've seen and sat in like your photo was donated to our college department.  The office secretary tried it out but opted for a more "comfortable" ergo chair. It ended up as a demonstration for our last furniture design class to "think out of the box" when designing their own projects. When the last senior professors retired it disappeared.  It was left in their office and never seen again.  

4D

[Gerald]

Chair? looks more like a stool.

[4DThinker]

36 minutes ago, Gerald said:

Chair? looks more like a stool.

Yep.  It can be used as a stool.  The dynamic nature of rocking and rolling makes it more of a "ride" though.   

As for rocking stools, I've had a few students design and make a few rocking stools.  The first assignment we gave in the final furniture design class was to design and make a stool.  Limits were that it couldn't have 4 legs.  1,2,3,5 or more were allowed, but not 4. Rockers only touch the floor on 2 points so they qualified. One student made a 1 point stool with a shallow dome base turned on the lathe. 

4D