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No. 14 chair

No. 14 chair is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand No. 14 chair rather than just read about it. In short: The No. 14 chair is the most famous chair made by the Thonet chair company. Also known as the "bistro chair", it was designed in the Austrian Empire by Michael Thonet and introduced in 1859, becoming the world's first mass-produced item of furniture.

No. 14 chair — main illustration
No. 14 chair — illustration

Key takeaways

  • No. 14 chair belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect No. 14 chair to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of No. 14 chair from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The No. 14 chair is the most famous chair made by the Thonet chair company. Also known as the "bistro chair", it was designed in the Austrian Empire by Michael Thonet and introduced in 1859, becoming the world's first mass-produced item of furniture. It is made using bent wood (steam-bending), and the design required years to perfect. With its affordable price and simple design, it became one of the best-selling chairs ever made. Gebrüder Thonet sold 50 million No. 14s between 1859 and 1930, and the company's successor organisations have sold millions more since then. "It represents the best example of a design which has been refined to the point where there is no way to improve it." Thonet's No. 14 comprises six pieces of steam-bent wood, ten screws, and two nuts. The wooden parts were made by heating beechwood slats to 100 °C (212 °F), pressing them into curved cast-iron moulds, and then drying them at around 70 °C (158 °F) for 20 hours. The chairs could be mass-produced by unskilled workers and disassembled to save space during transportation. Later chairs, as illustrated here, were made of eight pieces of wood. Two diagonal braces were added between the seat and back to strengthen this hard-worked joint. The design met a requirement for café-style chairs. The seat was often made of woven cane or palm, because the holes in the seat would let spilt liquid drain off the chair. Chair No 14 is still produced by Gebrüder Thonet, Vienna, by Ton, and by Thonet (as 214).

Design classic The No. 14 chair is widely regarded as a design classic. It earned a gold medal when it was shown at the 1867 World Exposition in Paris. It has been praised by many designers and architects, including Le Corbusier, who said, "Never was a better and more elegant design and a more precisely crafted and practical item created."

Redesign

As the original design is now in the public domain, there have been many new versions. In 1961, a plastic version was made by IKEA. In 2009, the chair was redesigned by James Irvine, an English designer, and retailed from Muji, a Japanese company. Roland Ohnacker, managing director of Thonet, stated that the aim was "to help 18 to 35 year-olds enter the Thonet brand world."

References

Illustrations

No. 14 chair illustration
No. 14 chair: Original version without braces showing the cane seat
Original version without braces showing the cane seat
No. 14 chair: A 1961 plastic-composite knock-off[5]
A 1961 plastic-composite knock-off[5]

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with No. 14 chair

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what No. 14 chair claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to No. 14 chair before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about No. 14 chair ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of No. 14 chair

In research
No. 14 chair appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses No. 14 chair in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
No. 14 chair is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Chairs, Flatpack furniture, History of furniture, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for No. 14 chair outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study No. 14 chair in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what No. 14 chair means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain No. 14 chair out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is No. 14 chair in simple terms?

The No. 14 chair is the most famous chair made by the Thonet chair company. Also known as the "bistro chair", it was designed in the Austrian Empire by Michael Thonet and introduced in 1859, becoming the world's first mass-produced item of furniture.

Why does No. 14 chair matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study No. 14 chair?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on No. 14 chair.

Tags

  • Chairs
  • Flatpack furniture
  • History of furniture
  • Individual models of furniture

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