IMPROVEMENTS IN METAL BEDSTEADS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Iles, of Peel Works, Birmingham, Manu-
facturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN METAL BEDSTEADS."
Sealed the 22nd August 1854, and dated the 27th June 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Iles at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 27th June
1854.
I, CHARLES ILES, of Peel Works, Birmingham, Manufacturer, do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN METAL BEDSTEADS"
to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of combining and keeping together the posts of
metal bedsteads, with the side, head, and foot rails, by means of improved con-
structions of parts of the posts and rails, whereby the posts and rails are enabled
to be combined and held firmly together by means of the metal laths and
stretchers. For this purpose, in place of making the rails to connect with the
posts by dovetails or other forms of connections heretofore used, the metal posts
are only formed with recesses (by preference in cast enlargements on the
posts, but this may be varied,) suitable for receiving within them and supporting
the ends of the rails, but not in such a manner as to hold the posts and rails
together, without the laths and stretchers, and for the purpose of keeping
together the posts and rails the metal laths are attached and the stretchers
applied to the rails, so as to hold and bring all parts firmly together.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles lles in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th
December 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, СHARLES
ILES, of Peel Works, Birmingham, Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Charles Iles, Her special licence that I, the said Charles Iles, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles
Iles, 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, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN METAL BED-
STEADS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles lles, by
an instrument in writing. under my.hand and scal, 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 Charles Iles, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment thereof (that is to say) :-
This Invention consists of combining and keeping together the posts of
metal bedsteads with the side, head, and foot rails, by incans of improved con-
structions of parts of the posts and rails, whereby the posts and rails are
enabled to be combined and held firmly together by means of the metal laths
and stretchers. For this purpose, in place of making the rails to connect with
the posts by dovetails or other forms of connections heretofore used, the metal
posts are only formed with recesses (by preference in cast enlargements on the
posts, but this may be varied,) suitable for receiving within them and supporting
the ends of the rails, but not in such a manner as to hold the posts and rails
together without the laths and stretchers, and for the purpose of keeping
together the posts and rails the metal laths are attached and the stretchers
applied to the rails, so as to hold and bring all parts firmly together.

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a plan, in section; Figure 2, a side elevation, partly in section;
Figure 3, a section, taken at the dotted line a, b, in Figure 1; Figure 4 shows
separate views of the end of one of the rails; and Figure 5 shows a section of
one of the rails at c, f; in all of which Figures the same letters indicate the same
parts.
a, a, are the side rails, and b, b, are the end rails, which I prefer to
form of angle iron, having ends a', a', b', 'b', cast or otherwise affixed thereon,
as shewn; a, a, 62, 63, are projections on the ends of the side and end rails
a, a, and b, b; the parts a³, a², 62, 63, enter recesses cast or formed in the
enlargements c', of the posts c, c, c, c, placed at right angles to each other, and
the parts a², 6, are formed so as to come together, as shewn in Figure 1, and
the ends a', ', of the side and end rails, are hollowed out at a³, b³, to the form
of the enlargements c', c', on the posts c, so that they may come up close to
them, and thus the parts a, b, are prevented from turning in the sockets or
recesses of the enlarged portions of the posts c, c, of the bedstead; d is the
longitudinal stretcher, which at either end is provided with a pin or projection
d'; these pins or projections pass downwards into holes formed for them in the
end rails b, b; e is the transverse stretcher, which is provided with pins or pro-
jections e¹, e, one at each end, similar to those of the stretcher d, and they
enter holes formed to receive them in the side rails a, a; fare the metal laths,
which serve to hold the end rails in their proper positions in the sockets or
recesses c¹ of the posts c, and they each have at either end a hole through
which the studs h, h, of the end rails pass, as has heretofore been practised;
g, g, are the metal laths, which by the studs i, i, retain the side rails a, a, in
their proper positions in the enlargements c¹, c', of the posts c, c, and the parts
a, b, c, become thereby firmly held together.
I will now describe another node by which my Invention may be carried
out, and refer to the Drawings, in which Figure 6 shews a plan, in section, and
Figure 7 a vertical section, and Figures 8 and 9 show some of the parts sepa-
rately; the side and end rails a, b, in this instance, are formed of angle iron,
without castings being formed or affixed thereon as in the preceding plan, their
ends a', ', being formed by cutting the angle iron into the form represented at
Figure 8, which shows a plan and an elevation of one of the ends of a rail so
formed. The stretchers d, e, in this instance, are formed with screws at their
outer ends, which pass through holes formed for that purpose in the angle iron,

page_text: and there are nuts e', d, by which the side and end rails are stretched, so as to
tighten up the laths g and f, on their studs h and i.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not confine myself
to the details; but what I claim is, the mode herein described of constructing
metal bedsteads, whereby the side rails, end rails, and posts are retained
together by the laths and stretchers, as herein explained.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Iles, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
CHARLES ILES. (L.S.)
Witness,
J. G. TONGUE.