IMPROVED SPRING APPARATUS.APPLICABLE TO BEDSTEADS AND OTHER ARTICLES TO WHICH SPRINGS MAY RR APP
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Needham, of Oriel Place, Chelsea, in the
County of Middlesex, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVED SPRING
APPARATUS.APPLICABLE TO BEDSTEADS AND OTHER ARTICLES TO WHICH SPRINGS
MAY RR APPLIED
Sealed the 21st June 1861, and dated the 25th January 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Needham at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition on the 25th
January 1861.
I, SAMUEL NEEDHAM, of Oriel Place, Chelsea, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED
SPRING APPARATUS APPLICABLE TO BEDSTEADS, AND OTHER ARTICLES TO WHICH
SPRINGS MAY BE APPLIED," to be as follows:-
My spring apparatus is applicable to bedsteads, couches, chairs,and various
other articles, and as the description thereof as applied to a bedstead will
(allowing for certain modifications in particular cases) show its general
aduptability I confine myself to such description, I take for instance a metal
bedstead six feet by five, I use about ten laths (steel) curved to rise about
two and a half inches in the centre; each of these laths is furnished with a
metal plate or piece (having a slot cut therein) which is hinged on each
end of said lath and works on the side framing of the bedstead. A screw

page_text: passes through the slot and also previously through a bar of metal which
runs the whole or (in two pieces) half the length of the side framing to
keep the whole of the lath ends from shifting. the said ends being allowed
play by means of the slot before mentioned. Laths or bars, placed one on
and one under the centre of the cross laths and tied together with moveable
screws, hold the centres of the cross laths in position; the strength of the
cross bars or laths will be according to the weight to be sustained. My
Invention is equally adaptable to wooden framings of bedsteads and other
articles.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Needham in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th July 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
NEEDHAM, of Oriel Place, Chelsea, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Samuel Needham, Her special licence that I, the said Samuel
Needham, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Samuel Needham, 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
"IMPROVED SPRING APPARATUS APPLICABLE TO BEDSTEADS AND OTHER ARTICLES TO
WHICH SPRINGS MAY BE APPLIED," upon the condition (amongst others) that I.
the said Samuel Needham, my exccutors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under ny, 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 saine to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Samuel Needham, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-

page_text: formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the illustrative Sheets of Drawings hereunto
annexed, which form part of this my Specification, and to the letters of
reference marked thereon, denoting similar parts where such parts appear
or can be seen at each of the Figures respectively.
My spring apparatus may be used in the construction of bedsteads, couches,
easy chairs, camp stools, and numerous articles for which spiral, helical, or
other springs are now employed, and especially for the seats of railway or
other carriages, producing at the same time a firm and elastic seat. I will
describe it as applied to a bedstead and easy chair, and with slight modi-
fications this description will apply to its use in other articles. Instead of
making a box filled with spiral springs the foundation of a bedstead, or stuffing
the palliasse with similar springs, or in the case of couches or easy chairs
filling the bed or seat with springs, by my Invention the spring power is on
the framing, bed, or seat of these articles, and forms part thereof. The
mattrass and other bedding is placed on the plane of the bedstead (which
rises in its centre as hereafter explained), the weight of these and of the
occupant acts on the spring apparatus, causing a slight and easy deflection
and not an abrupt sinking and consequent reaction, as is always experienced
where spiral or similar springs are used, the upward pressure of which is
unpleasant to all, particularly so to invalids. The same easy deflection occurs
on pressure in whatever article my spring apparatus is used.
In the Drawings Figure 1, Sheet 1, shews my spring in elevation;
Figure 2 a plan of the plane of a metal bedstead fitted with my apparatus ;
Figure 3, a section of the center of plane; and Figure 4 section of the side
framing, both sections serving to shew how the parts are secured in their places.
Figure 1, Sheet, of the Drawings, shews the seat of an easy chair, my
spring apparatus forming said seat; Figure 2 section of cross fastening;
Figure 3 section of end fastening; Figure 4 side view of part of the framing
of an easy chair, my spring apparatus being on the arm; Figure 5 plan of
said spring; Figure 6 elevation of spring as applied at Figure 1; Figure 7
an elevation, and Figure 8 a plan of the spring shewing it as applied to a
portion of a wooden bedstead.
In the plan of bedstead shewn at Figure 2, Sheet 1, it will be seen that I use
fen cross laths and one center, each cross lath is a spring, the center a metal
lath to retain or secure the springs in their position, so that they may present
under all circumstances at the apex of the rise an uniform plane. I have
ouly shewn the side framing of the bedsteal a, a, the other portions not
being in any way useful in illustrating my Invention. The side frames are

page_text: usually six feet in length, I secure the ends of ten springs or laths 6 to these
side framings (as hereafter described) the springs or laths being made curved
so that the center of the apparatus rises from two to two and a half inches
above the two side framings, when all the parts are secured in position.
These laths or flat spring bars 6 (forming spring) are provided at each end
with a metal plate or piece c (having a slot cut therein of sufficient length
to allow the spring to play), which is hinged on to the said ends of laths
and secured on the side framing by means of a screw d, each such screw
being so placed in the slot of the piece c, that when the lath is in a curved
position it touches or nearly so the outer end of the slot, leaving the rest
of the slot open, so that if sufficient weight be placed on the springs the
piece c will slide on the bedstead framing as far as the inner end of the slot
will permit. Before 1 fasten the ends of the springs I place a bar or lath
of metal e (either in one or more pieces) above the ends of the metal pieces
c, the screw d passes through this lath or bar through the slot and into
the side framing a, securing the spring laths & in position, and preventing
the ends shifting laterally. This lath or bar being countersunk at proper
intervals receives the head of the screw into the sinks, leaving a flush or
even surface at the side of the bedstead, as shewn at Figure 2 Sheet 1.
In the longitudinal center of the plane, Figure 2, Sbeet 1, I place metal
bars or laths f, g, one, f, above, and the other, g, below the springs or laths b,
and I secure them by means of moveable screws d passing through packing
pieces, which are placed between these bars (as seen in Figure 3, Sheet 1,
of the Drawings), and by these means I hold the centers of the cross laths
always in the same position, and as the packing pieces are somewhat
thicker than the spring cross bars free play is secured to the latter. Bedsteads
and other articles to be sold at a low price may if desired be made with
the ends of the spring laths curved sharply and working in a sunken or
raised groove, the ends being covered, protected, and kept in sition by
the laths or bars e before mentioned, but I prefer in all cases to use the
springs, furnished at their ends with the slotted metal piece and secured as
herein before described.
Sheet 2 of the Drawings is appropriated to the illustration of my Invention
as applied to an easy chair, also shewing at Figures 7 and 8 my spring
as applied to a wooden bedstead. Figure 1 shews the plane of the spring
apparatus applied to an easy chair, differing in nothing from that described
in reference to the plane of the bedstead (shewn Figure 2, Sheet 1,) except
when from the small size of the chair seat, the cross piece is dispensed with;
and when saving in cost be an object (as the chair seat is stuffed) a wooden

page_text: lath may take the place of the metal lathe, but I prefer to use metal. The
mode of fastening the ends of the springs is shewn at Figure 3, and of the
cross piece at Figure 2. The mode of securing the spring 6 to the arm of
an easy chair is distinctly shewn at Figure 4 and 5, Sheet 2 of the Drawing,
and at Figure 6, elevation of spring as applied at Figure 1.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the means
by which I carry it into practical effect in so far as it is applicable to the
construction of a bedstead or an easy chair, I would observe that with some
modifications it is applicable to sofas, couches, camp bedsteads, stools, seats
of railway and other carriages, and various other articles to which springs
may be applied. Also that I do not confine myself to the precise details
herein given, nor to the relative proportions of parts to each other, as such
may be varied to suit the circumstances of particular cases, but I claim
the exclusive use (as of my Invention) of the spring apparatus herein
described, whether used in combination as in the bedstead and easy chair
shewn in the Drawings, or for any other articles to which the combination isap-
plicable, or whether taken and applied singly as a spring in the manuer
shewn, Figure 4, Sheet 2, of the Drawings. The whole essentially as herein-
before described and illustrated in the annexed Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Needham, have hereunto set.
my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
Witness,
JOHN GEDGE.
SAMUEL NEEDHAM. (L.s.)