IMPROVEMENTS IN METALLIC BEDSTEADS AND COTS
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Leonard Brierly at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 12th July 1879.
LEONARD BRIERLEY, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN METALLIC BEDSTEADS AND COTS."
My Invention has reference to such metallic bedsteads and cots as have elastic
sackings made of metallic or non-metallic fabric, and my said Invention consists of
the improvements hereinafter described in connecting the said sackings to the frame
of the bedstead or cot whereby the inconvenience attending the ordinary method of
connecting the said sackings to the frame of the bedstead or cot is avoided.
I will describe my Invention in connection with a metallic bedstead.
In the ordinary method of attaching an elastic sacking to the frame of a metallic
bedstead, the elastic fabric somewhat shorter than the frame of the bedstend, is
attached at the foot and bead ends respectively to bars of wood or metal, the bars
being connected to the angle irons at the ends of the bedstead by means of screw
pins passed through holes in the vertical web of the angle iron, or through holes in
loose clips on the angle iron; the screwed ends of the said screw pins taking into
screwed holes in the bar of the sacking. The tension of the elastic sacking is thus
thrown upon the head and foot angle iron and temporary or permanent flexure of
the angle iron is produced.
In connecting the elastic sacking to the frame of the bedstead according to my
Invention I proceed as follows:-
1
On the upper side of each of the dovetail pieces cast on the ends of the head
and foot angle. bars, I form a cylindrical block having an axial hole of a size
sufficiently large for the passage through the said block of the screw pin which
takes into the bar of the sacking. This block is cast in one piece with the dovetail
on the end of the angle bar, and does not interfere with the entrance of the dovetail
into the corner block or its removal therefrom.
By this method of construction the tension of the elastic sacking is borne by the
said blocks, and the ordinary strain upon and flexure of the head and foot angle
bars are prevented.
Instead of casting the blocks through which the screw pins pass upon the
dovetails on the ends of the angle bar, they may be cast on the corner blocks of the
pillars of the bedstead with the same or nearly the same effect.
As the tension of the elastic sacking presses the head and foot ends of the frame
towards each other, the dovetails on the angle bars and the recesses in the corner

page_text: blocks on the pillars in which the said dovetails engage, may be conveniently made
in positions at right angles to their ordinary positions. That is, instead of making
the said dovetails and recesses vertical they may be made horizontal, the bars in
this case being engaged with the corner blocks on the pillars by a horizontal motion.
By this arrangement the pressure of the sacking-on-the-dovetail-instead of being
lateral is direct and tends to hold the dovetail firmly to its bearing in the corner
block.
-The parts described for tightening the sacking may be employed either at the
foot end only of the bedstead or cot, or at the head end only or at both the foot end
and head end.