AN ADJUSTING BEDSTEAD ON A DOUBLE FRAME, WITH A FOUR- FOLD MOTION FOR THE RELIEF OF SICK, LAME, INFIRM, AND AGED PERSONS
Year: 1810

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, by His Royal
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighth day of October, in the year
One thousand eight hundred and ten, and in the fifty-first year of His reign,
hath given and granted unto EBENEZER PARKER, of Highfield, in the Parish of
Sheffield, in the County of York, Silver Plater, and FRANCIS CLULEY, of Sheffield
aforesaid, Surgeons Instrument Maker, their executors, administrators, and
assigns, His said Majesty's special licence, full power, sole privilege, and autho-
rity, to make, use, exercise, and vend, for the term of fourteen years from the
date thereof, a certain Invention or plan of the said Ebenezer Parker and Francis
Cluley, of making "AN ADJUSTING BEDSTEAD ON A DOUBLE FRAME, WITH A FOUR-
FOLD MOTION FOR THE RELIEF OF SICK, LAME, INFIRM, AND AGED PERSONS;" in
which Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that if the said Ebenezer Parker and
Francis Cluley, or one of them, should not particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of their said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, by an instrument in writing under their hands and seals, or the
hand and seal of one of them, and cause the same to be inrolled in His said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, then and in such case
the said Letters Patent, and all the liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby
granted, should utterly cease and become void, anything in the said Letters
Patent to the contrary notwithstanding, as by the same, when referred unto,
will more fully appear.

page_text: '
NOW THESE PRESENTS WITNESS that the aforesaid Francis Cluley,
by this present instrument in writing under his hand and seal, doth describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention of them, the said Ebenezer
Parker and Francis Cluley, and the manner in which the same is to be per-
formed, in the words and form following, that is to say:―
Their adjusting bed has four motions, by the different combination of which
its matrass, bed, &c. can be set in various positions as the patient or person
using the same feels most convenient.
First, it can be placed in an inclined position, the head being raised up higher
than the feet; this inclination can be made greater or less, as convenience
requires.
Secondly, it can be placed on an inclination sideways, one side being lower
than the other, but the head and feet remaining on the same level, and it will
incline to either side..
Thirdly, the frame supporting the mattrass, bed, &c. can be divided into two
lengths or parts, and while the lower length remains level, the part supporting
the body. and head of the patient can be inclined upwards.
E
-Fourthly, a frame is provided at the feet of the bedstead which can be raised
up at pleasure, so as to support the legs and thighs. that the knees may be
bent; this may be used when the bed is inclined to prevent the patient sliding s
down towards the feet of tlie bed; in this position the bedstead will have sonie
of the properties of an inclined chair.
:1..
The said Ebenezer Parker and Francis Cluley do not particularly claim the
first and third of the above four motions as their own or exclusive Invention,
but the combination of the whole to produce the effects above stated. At the
same time they do not confine themselves to one particular form of construction;
there being many methods of producing the effects above described by means
now used for other purposes; neither do they limit their Invention to the pur-
pose of a bed for invalids only, as the same may be made to have the
appearance of a sofa, couch, or easy chair; for an article of use or luxury; but
if such a piece of furniture possesses the essential properties of comprising the
aforesaid motions in one bedstead, sofa, couch, easy chair, &c., it comes within
the intent and meaning of His Majesty's Royal Letters Patent. The mode of
construction which they consider the best for pratice is ascertained by the
Drawings hereunto annexed, wherein Figure 1 is a representation of the bed-
stead in the first position above stated; Figure 2 is the second position;
Figure 3, the third position; and Figure 4, the fourth of the above positions.
The same letters of reference apply to all the Figures: The bedstead consists
of two parts or frames, the external and the internal or adjusting frame; the

page_text: b
former consists of four posts, A, A, A, A, and four rails, B, C, De, E, the same
as an ordinary bedstead, and may be made exactly the same, either with posts
or without, and is susceptible of all the same ornaments and furniture as are
in common use; within the rails B, C, D, E, the adjusting frame F, G, H, H,
(also shewn separate in Figure 5) is suspended by three gudgeons, centers, or
pins, at a, b, c, and a long center or pin at d, fixed to the adjusting frame and
projecting some length from it, and resting on the head rail E of the external
frame; when the adjusting frame is placed horizontal, and the other gudgeon
a, b, c, put into their places, the bedstead may be used as a common or regular
bedstead, the matrass, bied, &c. being laid on the rails of the adjusting frame,
which is of sufficient depth to contain them, and will have exactly the same ap-
pearance as a common bed. When it is required to give it the form of Figure 1,
the gudgeon or center c at the feet must be withdrawn; for this purpose, the
gudgeons at the sides and feet are cut with screws, threads, and fitted into brass,
iron, or other metal nuts, fixed into the exterior frame, and the ends of the
said screw gudgeons are received into holes made in pieces of metal or other
substance fixed to the sides and lower end of the adjusting frame; by turning
the gudgeon 6 at the foot-back by the winch handle L, its end is withdrawn
from the adjusting frame, so as to be no longer a support to it; then by raising
the center or pin d, the adjusting frame is elevated to the position of Figure 1;
to retain it at this or any other angle of elevation, a bolt is put through any of
the holes in the regulator K, beneath the center d, and another above it to keep
it firm in the same position. The second position is produced by withdrawing
both the side gudgeons by turning them back with the handle L, then the
adjusting frame will incline to either side upon the gudgeons or centers at the
head and feet, its inclination being limited from being too great by the stops
X, X, resting upon the rail E; to retain it, the center in the highest side must
be screwed forwards, and its end will enter one of the holes made for that pur-
pose in a piece of metal or other substance fastened to the side of the adjusting
frame; this piece of metal is seen more distinctly in Figure 5, at M, which
shews the three holes in it; when the end of the gudgeon is inserted into the
upper of these holes, the frame is in an horizontal position, but inclined as
Figure 2; when it is put in the lowest or middle of the holes, the opposite side
of the adjusting frame is provided with-a-similar piece of metal or other-sub-
stance, so that it may be fixed either on the right or left inclination. Hitherto
the adjusting frame has been considered as having its sides in one piece, but
they are each in reality divided in two lengths, which are connected by a strong
hinge or other joint at N, Figure 5, and when the frame is required to act as
if each of its sides were in one piece, a bolt is put through the cramps O, which

page_text: are screwed fast to the inside and outside of one length of the frame and pro-
jecting over the other, so that the bolt passes through the two cramps, and also
through the other part of the adjusting frame. When these bolts are withdrawn,
the frame may be turned up upon the hinges or joints to elevate the upper
part, the lower remaining fixed horizontally by its three screw gudgeons, as is
represented in Figure 3; the bolts which pass through the clamps may be
retained in their places by cross keys, a hook moving on a center, or other means.
For the fourth motion, a frame is provided within the adjusting frame; it is
marked P, P, and Q, Q, in Figure 5; it is in two parts, first, Q, Q, connected
with one of the cross rails of the adjusting frame by hinges or other joints, the
other part P, P, joined to the former also by hinges or other joints, and the
lower end is retained at any required elevation by notches cut in two pieces
of wood placed paralel to the adjusting frame, and fixed upon the rails thereof
in the position 1, 2, and 3; this frame lies flat upon the rails of the adjusting
frame, and is not in use.
In the above Specification no dimentions are given, as the said Patentees do
not consider their Invention anywise dependant upon particular dimentions.
The means of connecting the external and adjusting frames are various, either
by screws, bolts, pins, joints, hinges, or otherwise, the essential properties
remaining the same.
In witness whereof, I, the said Francis Cluley, hath hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and ten.