The folding chair is garnering major attention after the object was used in the viral Montgomery riverfront brawl, but who invented it?
A folding chair is currently the talk of the internet after the humble piece of furniture was used as a weapon in the Montgomery Riverfront brawl on Saturday, August 5, 2023.
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A large altercation broke out at Alabama’s Riverfront Park between dock workers and owners of a small private boat after the latter’s pontoon was blocking the reserved space for the Harriott II Riverboat, authorities revealed on Tuesday. One of the most viewed moments shows an African-American man slamming a white folding chair onto a Caucasian male and female, before getting restrained by authorities.
Although authorities have not confirmed the motive to be racially charged, the chaotic fight has reignited national conversations about racial tensions in the US. With the folding chair becoming the star of the show, it has prompted internet users to look into the history of the object, which some believe was ironically invented by Black inventor Nathaniel Alexander.
Nathaniel Alexander inaccurately identified in folding chair inventor claims
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Floods of tweets claim that African-American Nathaniel Alexander was the inventor of the furniture staple. One Twitter user called it a “full circle moment” that a Black male used it against a White male in Montgomery, a location which played a substantial role in the slave trade.
- READ: What is the white folding chair meme? Montgomery Riverfront brawl explained
According to CNN, enslaved people would arrive on Montgomery’s riverfront and would be paraded down the street in chains.
While Nathaniel Alexander has been credited for developing the modern folding chair, he is not the first inventor and tweets have been inaccurately identifying him.
Photos claiming to be Alexander are actually portraits of Lewis Howard Latimer, another African-American inventor. As one of the first major Black inventors, Latimer was directly involved with the creation of Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, and worked closely with Thomas Edison to improve his lightbulb design. Nathaniel Alexander is credited with creating a light bulb with a more durable carbon filament, making the bulb more affordable and practical.
Who invented the folding chair?
The concept of the modern folding chair is widely credited to John Cram of Suffolk, Massachusetts, who patented his idea in 1855. The official US patent office document shows Cram’s chair as the single folding furniture as we know it, though it features a cushioned seating.
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That being said, foldable chairs and stools have been used for centuries, dating back to at least the reign of Egyptian pharoah Tutankhamun. His golden throne was a wooden foldable seat with a back added.
The chair was later developed by John Dann of New Haven, Connecticut (patent 1863), and then Nathaniel Alexander, of Lynchburg, Virginia, who patented his design in 1911.
Alexander’s concept developed the folding chair to become more convenient for church and Sunday school use. His design added a small book rest on the back of the chair so those sat behind can place their lyric sheets on the ledge.
“This invention relates to chairs particu larly designed for churches, Sunday schools, auditoriums and places where considerable singing is done, the chairs being advantageously used by choirs and singing societies,” the patent reads. “The purpose of my invention is to furnish a chair with a book rest or support that will be immediately placed in position when the seat of the chair is lowered, the rest or sup port otherwise being compactly held upon.”
Nathaniel Alexander is not the sole inventor of the folding chair; he developed a variation of it.
- MORE: Riverfront Brawl nicknamed ‘ Montgomery Mollywop’ will ‘go down in history’
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