IMPROVE- MENTS IN SPRINGS USED IN MAKING SEATS, CUSHIONS, SEAT BACKS, PILLOWs, MATTRESSES, AND SIMILAR ARTICLES
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Louis Adolphus Durrieu, of 33, Soho Square,
London, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN SPRINGS USED IN MAKING SEATS, CUSHIONS, SEAT BACKS, PILLOWs,
MATTRESSES, AND SIMILAR ARTICLES."-A communication from abroad by
Charles Louis Victor Yon, resident at Paris, in the Empire of France.
Sealed the 20th October 1864, and dated the 27th April 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Louis Adolphus Durrieu
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 27th April 1864.
I, LOUIS ADOLPHUS DURRIEU, of 33, Soho Square, London, in the County.
5 of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SPRINGS USED IN MAKING SEATS, CUSHIONS, SEAT BACKS;
PILLOWS, MATTRESSES, AND SIMILAR ARTICLES," a communication to me by Charles
Louis Victor Yon, resident at Paris, in the Empire of France, to be as
follows:-
Whereas the springs at present used in making seats, cushions, seat backs,
pillows, mattresses, and similar articles are only spiral in form, and are fastened
in their places to wood frames or webbing, and are liable to get displaced or
otherwise injured, to obviate these defects I improve the form of the spring
by continuing the wire of which the spring is formed, and bending it into a
rectangular or other suitable shape of such length and width as may be
required, thus forming a top and bottom. By this means I accomplish the

page_text: improvement in fastening them together and in their proper places by tieing
them together with tape, string, wire, or any similar means.
The springs
being thus fastened to each other by their rectangular or shaped (as the case
may be) top and bottom parts, form their own frame, and therefore require
no wood frame or webbing. By this mutual connection each spring is kept in
its proper place and in its upright or slanting position as required, and it is
not possible to displace it (in the finished article) by any means short, of
destruction by very excessive violence, and also any pressure upon one spring
is distributed among the rest. By attending to the relative proportions of the
aforesaid rectangular or other shaped top and bottom, as also to the height
of the springs, I am enabled to make a cushion or any other article in
which these springs are used of any required shape, whether level or curved
in any degree even up to a sphere. The seats, cushions, pillows, or whatever
articles are made with springs, as above-described, are padded or covered and
finished in the ordinary manner.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Louis Adolphus Durrieu in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 22nd October 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LOUIS
ADOLPHUS DURRIEU, of 33, Soho Square, London, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Louis Adolphus Durrieu, Her special licence that I, the said Louis
Adolphus Durrieu, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Louis Adolphus Durrieu, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, ani
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SPRINGS USED IN MAKING SEATS, CUSHIONS,
SEAT BACKS, FILLOWS, MATTRASSES, AND SIMILAR ARTICLES," a communication to me
from abroad by Charles Louis Victor Yon, resident at Paris, in the Empire of
France, upon the condition (ainongst others) that I, the said Louis Adolphus

page_text: Durrieu, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Louis Adolphus Durrieu, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
My Invention consists in improving the form of the spring by continuing
the wire of which the spring is made, and bending it into a rectangular or
other suitable shape of such length and width as may be required, thereby
forming a top and bottom; by means of this top and bottom I fasten the
springs together and in their proper places by tieing them with tape, string,
wire, or any suitable means. The springs being thus fastened to each other.
by their rectangular-shaped parts form their own frame, and therefore requiro
no wood frame or webbing support as is commonly used in making spring
cushions, since by this mutual connection every spring is kept in its proper
place and required position; also by this mutual connection the pressure upon
one or two springs in a cushion is simultaneously distributed among the
others.
The spiral part of my spring does not materially differ from the springs
at present in use, but when a spiral of sufficient length is formed, the
wire is continued at each end, so as to form three sides of a square or
oblong, (the corners need not be strictly angular, but may take the easy
bend which wire naturally does when bent at a right angle to itself); in
some few required forms the top and bottom will not be square or oblong, but
one side may be longer than the opposite side. The springs are then con-
nected by the sides of the square or other shaped tops and bottoms, being tied
with tape lapped over, which tape is treated with glue or varnish to cause it
to adhere to itself firmly, and so form a strong connecting joint, though at the
same time the wire has sufficient freedom to prevent rigidity at the joints.
To form the edges of seats, or cushions, or pillows, I use wire bent as afore-
said into square, or oblong, or suitable forms, but without any spring between;
then by tieing these to the tops and bottoms respectively of the last row of
springs, and bringing their outer edges together, I can make a sloping or
tapering edge, as required.
In making cushions which require a curved surface, such, for instance, as the

page_text: back of an easy chair, I make the said tops and bottoms of different relative
sizes, so that on the principle of the stones in an arch, a group of theso
springs when fastened together will present a greater or less curve, as desired;
by attending to the proportions between the said tops and bottoms any curve
can be formed. Another mode of obtaining a curved surface is by making
the said tops and bottoms in different planes, or by giving one or both a curve
of its or their own.
From the above descriptions it will be seen that when the wire is con-
tinued from the spiral, it may, by my Invention, be bent into any form which
may be necessary to produce any required shape.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, I claim,-
First, the formation of tops and bottoms to springs used in making seats,
cushions, seat backs, pillows, mattresses, and similar articles, whether the
said tops and bottoms require to be shaped as parallelograms or trapeziums
in the same or different planes, or with a curve, convex or concave, or with
angular or rounded corners.
Secondly, the connection of springs so formed by tape or any suitable
material.
In witness whereof, I, the said Louis Adolphus Durrieu, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four..
LOUIS ADOLPHUS DURRIEU.
L.S.)