Talk:Glider (furniture)

Gliding motion/safety

See: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/babies-kids/baby-toddler/nursery-furniture/rocking-chairs-gliders/rocking-chairs-gliders-4-07/overview/rocking-chairs-and-gliders-ov.htm

"A glider is an updated version that’s designed to slide forward and backward rather than rock in an arc".

See Four bar linkage, "parallelogram" linkage. Granted, not all gliders purely glide back & forth, some do "rock" and change the tilt angle.

Likewise, some gliders have the four-arm mechanism mostly enclosed and are safer than a rocker.

Samw (talk) 03:48, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

Consumer Reports isn't a reliable source in this instance. There is no supporting source saying that gliders aren't designed to rock in an arc. Having just recently shopped for such a chair, and after reviewing probably a hundred models and styles, I have not seen one single glider chair that uses a parallelogram linkage. All of them use a double rocker linkage. None of the patents I found use it either. If it isn't a parallelogram, it will rock in an arc. I think there may be porch swings that use a parallelogram, but I am not certain.

Most gliders don't have the mechanism enclosed. Some have it covered by an outer plate, or by the chair upholstery if it's an easy-chair style glider. The safety comes from the glider's inability to squash things on the floor, like the tail of your cat getting caught under a rocking chair. ~Amatulić (talk) 16:53, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

FYI, yet another source: "Unlike swings and rocking chairs, gliders have no arc to their movement; instead, they move on a flat plane."[1]

I agree that no glider use perfect parallelogram and for any number of reasons, it is invariably a double-rocker. However, I assume you will at least agree that the motion of a glider is different than that of a rocking chair? Will you then agree virtually all gliders provide more back and forth motion for a given amount of angle tilt than the traditional rocking chair? If so, we then need to figure out how to add that to the article without making it too technical. Samw (talk) 03:37, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

This article is currently about glider chairs. That source is about outdoor gliders, which I mentioned (as porch swings) in my comment above. Even so, the source proves itself unreliable by stating nonsense. Even a perfect parallelogram will move in an arc while maintaining a constant orientation for the seat. This is simple physics. Self-published material from non-authoritative sources is no better than making stuff up.

I repeat: All glider chairs have an arc to their movement, in both seat orientation and displacement. I have yet to see an exception. There is no "slightly imperfect" parallelogram at work here.

In fact, I would say, based on the North American manufacturers designing their glider with a rather pronounced non-parallel double rocker, their aim is to duplicate a rocking chair as much as possible. Look at what is being sold today. Look at the original patents cited in this article.

Doesn't anybody ever go to a store and try these out? After trying out more models and styles than I can count from 6 different furniture stores and baby stores, the movement feels fairly close to rocking chair movement to me. ~Amatulić (talk) 20:28, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

See discussion at: http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=252096&page=1