IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF METALLIC BEDSTEADS AND OTHER ARTICLES OF METALLIC FURNITURE
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Atkins, of the Firm of Robert Walter
Winfield and Company, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Merchants and Manufacturers, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF METALLIC BEDSTEADS AND OTHER ARTICLES OF
METALLIC FURNITURE."
Bealed the 30th July 1869, and dated the 17th February 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Atkins at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Potition, on the
17th February 1869.
I, JAMES ATKINS, of the Firm of Robert Walter Winfield and
Company, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Merchants and
Manufacturers, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF METALLIC BEDSTEADS AND OTHER
ARTICLES OF METALLIC FURNITURE," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists, firstly, of the following improvements in the

page_text: manufacture of the dovetail joints by which the bodies and ends of
metallic bedsteads and other articles of metallic furniture are connected
together. The junction of the said parts is ordinarily effected by means
of a corner block of cast iron having dovetail openings in it and dovetail
pieces of cast iron fitting into the openings in the block. The said
corner block is fixed on the pillar or leg of the article of furniture, and
the dovetail pieces on the ends of the side and end rails.
In making the said parts according to my Invention I make them of
flat bars of wrought iron, which I bend by a press or otherwise into a
-shape having a general resemblance to the parts of the ordinary junction,
that is to say, I bend the bar of iron to replace the corner block into
the shape of a skeleton half corner block with a dovetail opening in it,
and I bend the bar of iron to replace the dovetail piece into the form of
a skeleton dovetail. These parts are respectively connected with the
head and foot rails or ends and the side rails by rivetting or otherwise,
the ends of the flat bars of which they are made being bent into the
required positions to permit of the rivetting of the said ends to the parts
to which they are to be attached.
In making the parts described according to my Invention I prefer to
make the dovetails and the dovetail openings much larger or broader
than they are ordinarily made. The particular shapes of the said parts
may be varied without departing from the nature of my Invention.
י
My Invention consists, secondly, of the following improvements in
manufacturing the head and foot rails or ends of metallic bedsteads and
other articles of metallic furniture. The said head and foot rails are
usually made of rods joined together by cast or other junctions, or of
panels inserted in a framing of tubes.
In making the said head and foot rails according to my Invention I
construct a framing of a rectangular figure by means of flat bars, which
framing may be divided into smaller rectangular divisions by parallel
flat bars. The rectangular spaces thus formed are filled by straight
strips of sheet metal arranged either diagonally, or parallel with the sides
of the framing; or the said strips may be interlaced. Where the said
strips cross each other, and where they join the flat bars of the framing,
I connect them together by plain or ornamental rivets or otherwise.
Any required ornaments may be attached either at the crossings of the

page_text: strips or in the open spaces. The flat bars and strips described may be
ornamented with surface or other ornaments.
By constructing the head and foot rails of metallic bedsteads and
other articles of metallic furniture according to my Invention great
ebonomy in manufacture and facility in the ornamentation of the said
head and foot rails are secured.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James' Atkins in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 18th August 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
ATKINS, of the Firm of Robert Walter Winfield and Company, of
Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Merchants and Manufacturers,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred' and sixty-nine, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign; did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said James Atkins, Her special licence that
I, the said James Atkins, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others, as I, the said James Atkins; 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 THE MANUFACTURE OF METALLIC
BEDSTEADS AND OTHER ARTICLES OF METALLIC FURNITURE," upon the condition
(amongst others). that I; the said James Atkins, my executors or adminis-
trators, 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:

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Atkins, 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 statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention consists of the improvements herein-after described and
illustrated in the accompanying Drawing in manufacturing the head and
foot rails or ends of metallic bedsteads and other articles of metallic
furniture. The said head and foot rails are usually made of rods joined
together by cast or other junctions or of panels inserted in a framing of
tubes.
In making the said head and foot rails according to my Invention
I construct a framing of a rectangular figure by means of flat bars, which
framing may be divided into smaller rectangular divisions by parallel flat
bars. The rectangular spaces thus formed are filled by straight strips
of sheet metal arranged either diagonally or parallel with the sides of the
framing, or the said strips may be interlaced. Where the said strips
eross each other, and where they join the flat bars of the framing, I
connect them together by plain or ornamental rivets or otherwise. Any
required ornaments may be attached either at the crossings of the strips
or in the open spaces. The flat bars and strips described may be
ornamented with surface or other ornaments.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing represents in elevation the
head or foot or end rail of a metallic bedstead or other article of metallic
furniture made according to my Invention; and Figure 2 represents
a bedstead to which head and foot or end rails of the kind represented
in Figure 1 are applied. The said end rail, Figure 1, consists of a
rectangular frame made of flat bars a, a, b, b, the horizontal bars,
a, a, being connected to the upright bars 6, 6, by ornamental rivets at f.
The said frame is subdivided by a middle vertical bar h, as represented,
and the rectangular spaces in the frame are filled by the diagonal
straight strips of sheet metal c, c, laid upon each other in the manner
represented or interlaced. The said strips c, c, are connected together
where they cross each other and to the flat bars a, a, b, b, of the framing
by means of ornamental rivets at 9. Instead of connecting the flat bars
and strips of sheet metal together by ornamental rivets they may be
connected in any other convenient manner, The flat bars a, a, b, b, and
sheet metal strips c, c, of which the rail, Figure 1, is principally made are
perforated with ornamental perforatious, as represented, but the said bars

page_text: and strips may be ornamented by means of surface ornaments produced
by painting, transferring, rolling, or otherwise. Around the frame a, b,
are twisted tubes d, d, the horizontal tubes serving to secure the rail to
the bedstead or other article; or both the horizontal and vertical
external tubes d, d, may be employed to secure the rail to the
bedstead or article, as represented in Figure 2, where the twisted tubes
are somewhat differently arranged from those in the rail Figure 1, or
the rail may be fixed in any other convenient way.
Figure 3 represents another head or foot or end rail constructed
according to my Invention. In this rail the flat bars a, a, b, b, of which
the frame is composed are unperforated and plain on their surface, the
said bars being connected together by the ornamental rivets e, e, and the
filling up strips of sheet metal c, e, are connected together and to the
frame by ornamental rivets and are interlaced and arranged in a different
manner from that in which the strips c, c, of the rails, Figures 1 and 2,
are interlaced and arranged. By arranging the flat bars and sheet metal
strips in the manner represented in Figure 3 a simple ornamental design
is produced which is inexpensive to manufacture.
Although I have only illustrated in the accompanying Drawing two
ways in which the flat bars and sheet metal strips may be arranged or
combined for the formation and ornamentation of head and foot or and
rails of metallic bedsteads and other articles of metallic furniture, yet the
said flat bars and strips may be arranged or combined in various other
ways so as to produce different ornamental designs or patterns in the
head and foot rails. By constructing the head and foot rails of metallic
bedsteads and other articles of metallic furniture according to my
Invention great economy in manufacture and facility in the ornamenta-
tion of the said head and foot rails are secured.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that
I do not limit myself to the precise details herein described and
illustrated, as the same may be varied without departing from the nature
of my Invention; but I claim as my Invention, the improvements in the
manufacture of metallic bedsteads and other articles of metallic furniture
herein before described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing,
that is to say, making the head and foot or end rails of the said articles

page_text: of flat bars and straight strips of sheet metal arranged or combined'
substantially as described and illustrated.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Atkins, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
Witness,
CHARLES TORR,
Cambridge St. Works,
Birmingham.
JAMES ATKINS. (L.S.)