IMPROVEMENTS IN SECURING ATTACHMENTS TO MATTRESSES FOR USE AT SEA IN ORDER TO INCREASE THEIR EFFICIENCY WHEN USED FOR FORMING LIFE RAFTS
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Wren Watts at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th May 1882.
JAMES WREN WATTS of Norway Street in the Parish of Saint Luke's in the
County of Middlesex Hemp Hackle Maker " IMPROVEMENTS
IN SECURING
ATTACHMENTS TO MATTRESSES FOR USE AT SEA IN ORDER TO INCREASE THEIR
EFFICIENCY WHEN USED FOR FORMING LIFE RAFTS"
My invention consists in securing cords in the manner hereinafter described to or
in mattresses for use at sea whereby the said mattresses may be securely lashed
together to form a life raft in case of emergency and when so lashed are not
subjected to any injurious strain.
According to my said Invention I take two bars of wood of a length somewhat
less than that of the mattress to be made and I form a hole near each end of rach
of the said bars and I connect the said bars together by two cords (hereinafter
termed the transverse cords) each of which passes through one of the holes in each
of the said bars. And I secure the cords to the said bars by knotting the said
cords on each side of each of the said bars the space between the two bars when
thus connected being somewhat less than the width of the mattress to be made.
Midway between the said bars I secure or "seize" by rope yarn to the transverse
cords another cord hereinafter termed the longitudinal cord. The length of this
cord is somewhat greater than the length of the mattress to be made and the
length of each of the transverse cords is somewhat greater than the width of the
said mattress I then place the bars and cords thus secured together in the case of
the mattress to be made and pass the ends of the said cords through holes formed
in the sides and ends of the said case which I then stuff with ground cork so that
the said bars and cords are thoroughly embedded in and covered on all sides with
the cork stuffing and are about equidistant from the top and bottom of the case of
the mattress and at some distance from both its sides and its ends After thus
stuffing the case I close it and quilt or "tuft" the mattress in the usual manner.
Mattresses having cords and bars thus embedded in them are capable of being
used in precisely the same manner as ordinary mattresses and in case of emergency
may be lashed together by the protruding ends of the cords and cast overboard to
form a life raft. When the mattresses are thus used they are not liable to be rent

page_text: or broken by the strain on the attaching cords the said strain being either borne
almost entirely by the said cords or being distributed through the body of the
mattress.
The protruding ends of the transverse and longitudinal cords may be knotted
outside of and close to the case of the mattress but this is not essential.
"
Ropes or cords may be substituted for the wooden bars hereinbefore described
the said ropes or cords being secured to the transverse cords by knotting or
"seizing and being of sufficient length to protrude through and be knotted
outside of the case of the mattress at its ends. I prefer however to use the wooden
bars as the rigidity of the mattress consequent on their use facilitates the handling
of it and renders it more suitable for use in forming a life raft than one in which
ropes or cords are used in place of wooden bars.