IMPROVEMENTS IN BEDSTEADS AND IN DEVICES FOR GIVING ELASTICITY TO THE SAME.
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Orange McConnell Chamberlain at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 14th August 1878.
ORANGE MCCONNELL CHAMBERLAIN, of Kilburn, in the County of Middlesex.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN BEDSTEADS AND IN DEVICES FOR GIVING ELASTICITY TO THE
SAME.
"
My Invention relates to improvements in bedsteads and in devices for giving
elasticity to the same, and is designed to provide simple and effectual means
whereby a bedstead may be rendered yielding and elastic at a very small cost.
By adopting this Invention all the advantages resulting from the use of spring
mattresses are obtained, and many of their disadvantages obviated at a very small
cost compared with that of the most inexpensive spring mattress now manu-
factured.
In carrying the said Invention into practice I construct the said devices in such
a manner that the bedstead to which they are applied, or a part thereof, will be
capable of movement in a vertical direction, such movement being so controlled and
modified by suitable springs that the bedstead will yield to the weight of the person
occupying the same, and thus form an elastic or yielding support instead of a rigid
one.
In constructing a bedstead with devices made according to this Invention I form
the lower portion of the legs or supports of the bedstead in such a manner that the
upper portion of such legs or supports may slide therein vertically, and within the
said lower portion of each support I fit a spiral spring of suitable strength, so that
the upper portion of the legs or supports to which the frame and other parts of the
bedstead are attached slides telescopically in the lower portion by reason of the weight
of a person occupying the bedstead, and thus the whole weight of the latter and of
the person upon the same is supported upon the spiral springs.
It will be obvious that this arrangement provides a support of a yielding and
elastic nature for the whole of the upper part of the bedstead, and that in a bed-
stead so constructed spring mattress or equivalent appliance is rendered quite
unnecessary.

page_text: In order to adapt my Invention to existing bedsteads I provide supports to stand
upon the floor, and receive the lower part or feet of such bedsteads. These supports
are constructed with a spiral spring within each one, the said springs being so
arranged that the feet of the bedstead resting on the said supports will bear directly
upon the said springs in a vertical direction, and the bedstead be supported
thereby.
In some instances instead of the supports to stand upon the floor I propose to
provide springs at the upper part of a bedstead, and to construct the latter in such
a manner that the part of the bedstead upon which a person lies will be separate
from the other parts, and connected with the said springs so that such suspended
part will be elastic and yielding. In this case the legs or supports of the bedstead
will be of any ordinary kind, the elasticity being provided by the said upper
springs.
There may be any suitable number of such springs, which will be suitably attached
to convenient parts of the bedstead.
This arrangement may be employed with bedsteads constructed specially, or
existing bedsteads may be adapted by making the necessary alterations therein.
I wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself to the precise details of
construction, as herein-before described, as it is obvious that without departing from
the essential features of this Invention the same result may be obtained by using
springs, and other parts of various kinds. For example, I may employ elliptical or
other shaped springs resting upon blocks or discs, and upon such springs the bed-
stead may be supported, instead of upon spiral springs within a support, as herein-
before described, the object being to give to the bedstead itself or a part thereof the
elasticity desired.