Height adjusting mechanism for chair back

Claim 1

In a height-adjusting mechanism for a chair back, including an elongated upright connectible to a chair seat and projecting upwardly therefrom, said upright having a series of vertically-spaced notches associated therewith, a support connectible to the chair back and being slidably supported on the upright for vertical displacement therealong, and a spring-urged latching lever pivotally mounted on said support and being spring-urged into engagement with one of said notches for vertically fixing the support relative to the upright, the improvement wherein: said upright is of a channel-like shape and includes a plate-like base web having a vertically elongated slot extending therethrough, said slot being relatively narrow and bounded by opposed side edges defined on said base web, said series of notches being formed in said base web along one of the opposed edges which bounds said elongated slot so that said notches communicate directly with and open sidewardly from said slot; said latching lever being positioned directly adjacent said base web and mounted on said support for pivotal movement about a pivot axis which extends substantially perpendicular to said base web and intersects said slot, said latching lever having a sidewardly-projecting latching finger formed thereon in radially-spaced relationship from said pivot axis, said latching finger being defined between radially outer and inner edge surfaces which are each generated by a radius centered on said pivot axis, each said notch having a size and configuration substantially identical to that of said latching finger so as to snugly accommodate the latching finger therein.