TENTS AND FURNITURE FOR MILITARY AND OTHER USE."
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Moss at the Office of the Com-
missioners of Patents on the 14th March 1878.
JAMES Moss, of New Cross, in the County of Surrey.
TENTS AND FURNITURE FOR MILITARY AND OTHER USE."
“IMPROVEMENTS IN
My Invention relates to tents, bedsteads, and other furniture for camp and other
use, so constructed as to be pitched or erected with great readiness by being
simply stood upon the ground and expanded without the use of poles, cords, and
pegs, and to be as readily struck, and when taken down, to be capable of folding
or collapsing into a very small compass for transport.
These tents and bedsteads possess the further advantages of lightness and
durability, and afford a greater degree of comfort and convenience to the occu-
pants than those at present in use, being very firm and stable, and not liable to
be disturbed by the strongest wind, as they do not depend upon pegs, which are
liable to loosen and draw out of wet ground.
My Invention consists mainly in constructing camp tents, bedsteads, and other
camp furniture with frames composed of bars or levers jointed together on the
principle of the lazytongs, and in connecting the frames of the tents and the
furniture, such as the bedsteads and tables, which they contain, so that when the said
frames are placed upright and expanded, the tent, with the furniture in its proper
position, will be erected at one operation, and when folded or collapsed, the whole
will form but a single package.
The tent is of rectangular form, and consists of two longitudinal and vertical
side frames, each constructed of a series of bars jointed together on centres like
lazytongs, so as to be capable of expanding and contracting in the direction of
the length of the tent. These opposite frames are connected at the ends by similar
frames, or by a single pair of diagonal bars, according to the size of the tent, so
that the whole frame is capable of being expanded and contracted both endways
and sideways.
The side frames may also be connected along the top by similar horizontal
frames to brace the side frames and support the roof of the tent, the roof and end
frames being jointed permanently or not to the side frames, so that the whole will
fold up together or separately as preferred.

page_text: The side frames may if necessary be provided with feet or sockets at the lower
part to receive spikes driven into the ground to hold the frame at one end, and
enable it to be drawn out by one man. . Upon this frame is supported the canvas
covering forming the tent, which is fastened by buttons or otherwise to the frame
and folds up therewith.
To form a sloping roof a rope may be stretched horizontally along short posts
rising from the centre joints of the roof frame.
The bedsteads or combined bedsteads and tables are constructed each of a similar
lazytong frame placed horizontally, connected at one end to one side frame of the
tent, and supported on legs jointed to the under side of the bedstead frame in such
a manner as to admit of being folded up beneath the bedstead frame, and drawn in
and out therewith when the latter is collapsed or expanded.
To form a convertible bedstead and table the legs are made telescopic, or provided
with other joints, by which their length may be varied so as to adapt the height of
the frame to the purpose for which it is to be used.
Where separate tables are used they would be similarly constructed and
arranged.
The tents may be provided with a canvas extension along one or both sides
stretched from the eaves of the tent roof, and supported on upright poles to form a
roof for the protection of horses picketed alongside of the tent.