The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1915-04-08
START LARGE BUILDING TODAY
Company Has Offered to the World a
New Product Which It Is Declared Is
the Most Notable Change of Years in
Old Methods OF Making Metal Beds.

The Simmons Manufacturing Com
pany has revolutioinzed the metal bed
| industry. The wonderful inventive
genius of John Gail, coupled with the
practical experience Of 2. G. Simmons,
Otto Rudd and number of other me-
chanics of the Simmons company, has
brought on the market new metal bed
which is the envy of the competitors
in fact is shch a wonderful improve
ment on all metal beds made in the past
that it is driving away competition and
is making Kenosha more than ever be-
fore the center of the bed making in
| dustry of the world. The success of
| the new bed has been so great that the
company is today breaking ground for
one Of the largest factory buildings
ever erected in Kenosha and the work
on a great steel and brick. building hav-
| ing more than 100000 feet of floor
space is to be rushed to completion in
the next sixty days in order to make
| it possible for the company to fill the
ayalanch of orders for the new product.
This new manufacturing building
| when equipped will cost more than a
/ quarter Of million of dollars and with
its completion hundreds of more men
| will be added to the force of workmen
employed in the big factory.
The innovation which the Simmons
company has given to the great world
of beds is due to the invention of
new seamless steel tubing and the ma
chinery necessary to make it,
| Half a year ago at one Of the coun-
ellis of the Simmons forces the presi-
dent of the company said, GIVE are
making wonderfully good metal bed
now. It is the leader of it's class in the
world, but it is crude, it's heavy bur
/ den to the women who take care of
houses and half of the profits of the
manufacture and sale Of it are eaten
| up by freight charges which must be
paid to get it into the markets Of the
world. There must be some better bed
that We can put On the Market
This was the idea which started the
plan for making new tubing. For
! years the Simmons company had been
| buying tubing from big steel mill in
Cleveland. 1t was the biggest custo-
mer of the company. Now all Of this
tubing is to be made in Kenosha and
| the Kenosha drawn tubing is far SUI
perior to that which had formerly been
brought in from plants in other cities.
Less than three months ago John Gail
walked into the offices of the company
and passed over to the men at the head
| OF the big concern new piece Of tub
ing. 1t was an electrically welded
| steel tube of wondrous strength. Add
ed to this was the fact that it had
| perfectly smooth surface which would
adapt itself to finishes which had been
unknown in the manufacture Of metal
beds in the past. The tube was tested
in thousands of ways and it met every
test. It was found that it could be
bent into graceful curves without leav-
| ing any disagreeable and unsightly
kinks and that it could be made into a
bed which when completed would
show weight Of less than one
half the weight Of beds which had
been made in the past Patents
for the tube and the crude ma
chimes which had been made for draw
ing the first tube, were at once applied
for and late in January the order was
sent out to put in this machinery and
start making the new steel bed. 1t was
Like Aladdin rubbing wonderful lamp.
Every machine department in the plant
was put to work to get out machinery
to make, to bend, and to shape the new
tubing and In less than three months
the whole factory has been changed
over so that at this time the company
is turning out more than twenty-five
hundred of the new standard type of
steel beds daily. The new bed made
an instantaneous hit with every one.
The man who bought them saw that the
textile strength of the new bed was as
great as that of the old iron bed and
ne saw the cutting of his freight bills
In half as the old bed weighed eighty
i've pounds and the new one but forty
two. The Simmons company would
have preferred to have waited until It
could get new and complete automatic
machinery built, but the demand for
the new type of bed was so great that
every activity of the big plant was put
into operation and every bit of room
available was called into service to
meet the demand
The new bed adapts itself wonder |
fully to decoration and various forms
of finishes. The iron bed finishes on |
account of the rough surface of the
iron tube, was formerly limited to a
number of shades of paint, but now
workmen are converting the tube made |
beds into wonderful beds Of mahogany, |
oak, circassian walnut, black walnut
and in fact the beds can be finished to |
meet the demand Of am customer. The