Variably positionable article and support assembly therefor

Claim 1

A support assembly for supporting an article of furniture, or the like, wherein said article is hingedly secured at a first end portion by hinge means to a first associated support in a manner enabling said article to be vertically positionable in any one of a plurality of elevationally distinct functional positions with respect to said first associated support with said hinge means experiencing both pivotal and translational motion with respect to said first associated support and said article as said article is undergoing a change of positions from a first of said plurality of elevationally distinct functional positions to a second of said plurality of elevationally distinct functional positions, said support assembly comprising generally upwardly extending leg-like support means having an upper end thereof adapted to be continuously operatively connected to an undersurface of said article by pivot means translationally movable with respect to said article, said pivot means being translationally movable from a first translational position to at least a second translational position for enabling the easy change in position of said article from any one of said plurality of elevationally distinct functional positions to any other of said plurality of elevationally distinct functional positions, said leg-like support means having a lower end adapted to be operatively connected to second associated support structure laterally spaced from said first support structure in a manner permitting said lower end to only experience a generally pivotal motion with respect to said second associated support structure, said leg-like support being inclined with respect to the vertical as to have said upper end thereof disposed more nearly an other end portion of said article opposite to said first end portion when said article is in an elevationally lowermost position of said plurality of elevationally distinct functional positions, said translationally movable pivot means enabling said other end portion of said article to be manually raised generally upwardly as to thereby cause said first end portion to be supported by and pivotally rotate on said hinge means and cause said upper end of said leg-like support and said pivot means to translationally move with respect to said article as to move to a selected point more nearly closer to said first end portion generally midway between said first end portion and said other end portion and thereby result in said leg-like support assuming a position more nearly vertically disposed, said upper end of said leg-like support being effective when moved to said selected point to enable said article to be manually moved in a first direction generally away from said hinge means causing said hinge means to experience translational motion while also pivotally rotating with respect to said article thereby causing said article to undergo pivotal rotation in one direction about said pivot means whereby said other end portion of said article starts to move downwardly while said first end portion of said article starts to move upwardly, said upper end of said leg-like support also being effective whEn said article has been moved a sufficient distance in said first direction to enable said article to be manually moved in a second direction generally opposite to said first direction toward said hinge means causing said hinge means to continue experiencing translational motion while also continuing to experience pivotal rotation with respect to said article thereby causing said article to continue to undergo pivotal rotation in said one direction about said pivot means whereby said other end portion of said article continues to move downwardly while said ffirst end portion of said article continues to move upwardly until said article attains an elevationally distinct functional position elevationally above said elevationally lowermost position of said plurality of elevationally distinct functional positions, said leg-like support being effective to generally pivotally rotate in a first angular direction generally about said lower end while said article is being moved in said first direction and to generally pivotally rotate in a second angular direction generally about said lower end while said article is being moved in said second direction.