IMPROVEMENTS IN METALLIC BEDSTEADS AND COTS
Year: 1872

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 "IMPROVE-
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Atkins at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th June 1872.
.
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 METALLIC BEDSTEADS AND COTS," to be as follows: :-
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Atkins at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th June 1872.
.
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 METALLIC BEDSTEADS AND COTS," to be as follows:-
:-
My Invention has reference to the foot rails of metallic bedsteads and
cots and parts connected with the said foot rails, and consists of the
construction and combinations of parts herein-after described.

page_text: I will describe my Invention in connection with a metallic bedstead.
I extend the foot rail a considerable distance below the level of the
sacking of the bedstead, and in order to permit the bed clothes to fall
over the end of the framing of the bed the foot rail is fixed in a vertical
plane at a somewhat greater distance from the head of the bed than the
plane in which the pillars at the foot of the bed are situated. I connect
the said foot rail with the said pillars in the following manner :-(
- Over
the solid or foundation pillars at the foot of the bed I slide and fix
tubular pieces carrying junction pieces to which the upper and middle
horizontal bars of the foot rail are fixed. The bottom horizontal bar of
the foot rail is connected to curved junction pieces on the pillars below
the corner blocks, and the said bar is joined to the said junction pieces
by screw collars resembling the ordinary union joint. When by the
unscrewing of the said collars the lower rail is detached from the pillars
the foot rail with the tubular pieces can be lifted from off the pillars.
Where it is wished to keep the foot rail in the same vertical plane as
the pillars, the angle bar at the foot of the bed is fixed in a vertical
plane nearer the head of the bed than the plane in which the pillars are
situated. In order to give the required position to the said angle bar,
I make the corner blocks which carry the angle bar of the shape
necessary to support the angle bar in the required position.
I prefer to employ in place of the ordinary valance a foot curtain
extending from the top of the foot rail to the required distance below
the sacking. This curtain may either be supported at top and bottom
by being stretched between horizontal rods passed through hems at
the top and bottom of the curtain respectively, or it may be supported
from a rod fixed to the top of the foot rail and allowed to hang loosely
from the said rod.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Atkins in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 29th November 1872.
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.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth 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 METALLIC BEDSTEADS
AND COTS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James
Atkins, my executors or administrators, 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.
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 has reference to the foot rails of metallic bedsteads and
cots and parts connected with the said foot rails, and consists of the
construction and combinations of parts herein-after described.
I will describe my Invention in connection with a metallic bedstead.
I extend the foot rail a considerable distance below the level of the
sacking of the bedstead, and in order to permit the bed clothes to fall
over the end of the framing of the bed the foot rail is fixed in a vertical
plane at a somewhat greater distance from the head of the bed than the
plane in which the pillars at the foot of the bed are situated. I connect
the said foot rail with the said pillars in the following manner :-Over
the solid or foundation pillars at the foot of the bed I slide and fix
tubular pieces carrying junction pieces to which the upper and middle
horizontal bars of the foot rail are fixed. The bottom horizontal bar of
the foot rail is connected to curved junction pieces on the pillars below
the corner blocks, and the said bar is joined to the said junction picces

page_text: by screw collars resembling the ordinary union joint. When by the
unscrewing of the said collars the lower rail is detached from the
pillars the foot rail with the tubular pieces can be lifted from off the
pillars.
Where it is wished to keep the foot rail in the same vertical plane as
the pillars, the angle bar at the foot of the bed is fixed in a vertical
plane nearer the head of the bed than the plane in which the pillars
are situated. In order to give the required position to the said angle
bar I make the corner blocks which carry the angle bar of the shape
necessary to support the angle bar in the required position.
I prefer to employ in place of the ordinary valance a foot curtain
extending from the top of the foot rail to the required distance below
the sacking. This curtain may either be supported at top and bottom
by being stretched between horizontal rods passed through hems at the
top and bottom of the curtain respectively, or it may be supported from
a rod fixed to the top of the foot rail and allowed to hang loosely from
the said rod.
Having explained the nature of my Invention, I will proceed to
describe with reference to the accompanying Drawings the manner in
which the same is to be performed.
Figure 1 represents in end elevation, and Figure 2 in plan a portion
of a metallic bedstead the foot rail of which is constructed and con-
nected to the said bedstead according to my Invention.
a, a³, is the foot rail prolonged below the level of the end angle bar
or framing 6, the said foot rail being fixed in front of the said angle bar
and in a different vertical plane from that in which the said angle bar b
and the foot pillars of the bedstead are situated (see the plan Figure 2).
There is thereby left sufficient space between the foot rail a, a², and the
end angle bar 6 of the bedstead to permit of the bed clothes falling over
the end angle bar b. The foot rail a, a', is connected to the foot pillars
of the bedstead in the following manner :-On the legs or founda-
tions c, c, of the foot pillars tubular junction pieces d, d, are fixed in
any convenient manner. These junction pieces d, d, are represented
in plan detached in Figure 2. The arms or projecting parts d³, ďª, of
the said junction pieces d, d, are so curved that their free ends are
situated in a plane parallel to that in which the pillars c, c, are situated.
The projecting parts of the junction pieces have screwed bosses e, e,

page_text: made upon them. The bottom rod a³ of the foot rail a, a², is furnished
at each end with a sliding collar f screwed internally. By advancing
these screw collars f, f, towards the pillars c, c, and screwing them
upon the screw bosses e, e, on the fixed junction pieces d, d, the lower
part of the foot rail is securely connected to the legs or foundations c, c,
of the foot pillars of the bedstead. The screw collar fat the right
hand side of the rail is represented in Figure 1 unscrewed from its
junction piece d, d. The horizontal bars of the foot rail above the
end angle bar 6 are connected to tubular junction pieces d', d³, and
the latter to the tubular casings g, g, of the pillars. These junction
pieces d', d', have the same shape as the bottom junction pieces d, d,
excepting that they are without the screw bosses e, e, the collars ƒ³,ƒ³,
on the upper bars of the rail being permanently fixed to the arms d³, ď³,
of the junction picces d³, d. The tubular casings 9, 9, are fixed in their
places on the inner or foundation pillars by the terminal ornaments h, h.
In order to detach the foot rail a, a², from the pillars of the bedstead
the screw collars f,f, are unscrewed from the screw bosses of the fixed
junction pieces d, d, and the terminal ornaments h, h, are also removed
from the screws at the tops of the foundation pillars. The whole of
the foot rail a, a², together with the junction pieces d', d', and tubular
casings g, g, can now be lifted from off the pillars. To refix the foot
rail to the pillars the tubular casings g, g, carrying the rail are slipped
upon the pillars and fixed by the terminal ornaments h, h, and the
screw collars f, f, are screwed upon the screw bosses e, e, of the fixed
junction pieces d, d.
Figure 3 represents in end elevation, and Figure 4 in plan a portion
of a metallic bedstead constructed according to another part of my
Invention in which the foot rail prolonged below the end angle bar of
the framing is situated in the same vertical plane as the pillars.
Figure 5 represents in plan one of the corner blocks of the bedstead.
Figures 6 and 7 represent the same construction as Figures 3, 4, and 5,
but the foot rail is of a different ornamental character. The same
letters indicate the same parts in Figures 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. i is the end
angle bar at the foot of the bedstead, which is fixed in a vertical plane
nearer the head of the bedstead than the plane in which the pillars k, k,
are situated (see the plans Figures 4 and 7). This position of the
angle bar i with respect to the pillars k, k, is obtained by giving the
- corner blocks m, m, at the foot of the bedstead the figure best seen in
the detached view, Figure 5, that is to say, instead of fixing the

page_text: pillars in the corner blocks in the same line as the dovetails which
receive the end angle bar i, each of the said corner blocks is prolonged
outwards at n, and in the said prolonged part the pillar k is fixed. The
foot rail 1, 1, can thus be fixed to the pillars k, k, in the same vertical
plane as the said pillars, leaving sufficient room between the end angle
bar i and the rail l, l, to permit the bed clothes to fall over the said end
angle bar. The foot rail 1, 1, is supported at the bottom of the
pillars k, k, by the horizontal supports p, p, projections at q on the
foot rail dropping into holes or recesses in the said supports p, p, (see
Figure 3). The upper part of the foot rail 1, 1, is connected to the
collars,, which slide upon the pillars above the tubular casings r, r,
the said collars being fixed in their places by the terminal ornaments 8, 8.
In order to remove the foot rail from the bedstead the terminal
ornaments 8, 8, are unscrewed, when the rail 1, 1, and collars P, P, may
be lifted from off the pillars. The foot curtain which I prefer to employ
in place of the ordinary valance is supported from the top of the foot
rail by means of rings and hooks on the top bar of the foot rail, or by
means of hems through which rods attached to the top and bottom bars
of the foot rail pass. When the curtain hangs loosely its hooks may
be hooked to a rod attached to the top rail.
Figure 9 in back view the
t is a hook attached to the
Figure 8 represents in edge view, and
arrangement for stretching the curtain.
back of each of the junction pieces of the rail 7, 7. Rods u, u, are
supported by the said hooks t, t, the said rods u, u, being passed through
hems in the curtain v. The bottom hooks t, t, are inverted as repre-
sented so as to stretch the curtain carried by the upper and lower
rods u, u. In some cases the hooks are attached to the top and bottom
rods of the rail instead of to the junction pieces on the said rods.
When the curtain is to hang loosely it may be hooked either directly
to the upper rod u or to rings carried by the said upper rod u. The
improvements described and illustrated are applicable to cots as well as
to bedsteads.
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 of improvements in
metallic bedsteads and cots,―

page_text: Firstly. The construction and combination or arrangement of parts
herein-before described and illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 of the
accompanying Drawings for connecting foot rails which extend below
the end angle bar of the bedstead or cot, and are situated at a greater
distance from the head of the bedstead or cot than the plane in which
the foot pillars are situated, to the said foot pillars of the said bedstead
or cot.
Secondly. The construction and arrangement of parts herein-before
described and illustrated in Figures 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 of the accompanying
Drawings for fixing or connecting foot rails which extend below the
end angle bar in the same vertical plane as the foot pillars.
Lastly. The arrangements herein-before described and illustrated for
connecting curtains to such foot rails of metallic bedsteads and cots as
project below the end angle bars of the said bedsteads and cots.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Atkins, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
Witness,
CHARLES TORR.
JAMES ATKINS. (L.S.)