Improvements in the Manufacture of Metallic Bedsteads.
Year: 1897

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Metallic Bedsteads.
We, EDWARD LAWSON, trading as R. L. Crosbie & Co., of Charlotte Street,
Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, and RICHARD GEORGE
HODGETTS, of Knowle Wood, Knowle, in the County of Warwick, Manager of
Works, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:
Our invention has reference principally to the head and foot rails of metallic
bedsteads but also includes certain changes in the parts of the bedstead proper
which changes are necessitated by our improvements in the head and foot rails.
In order that our invention may be the better understood we remark that in
the ordinary method of manufacturing metallic bedsteads the head and foot rails
constitute integral parts of the bedsteads being either fixed to the foot pillars in
the casting process or permanently fixed thereto by screwing or otherwise.
According to our invention we make the head and foot rails separate from the
bedstead proper and attach them to the bedstead by connections which admit of
their ready removal and replacement.
In making a head or foot rail according our invention it may be built up in
various ways and of a great variety of styles of ornament, as our method of
attachment does not limit the designer by the restrictions inseparable from the
ordinary method of manufacture.
In making a head or foot rail according to our invention we form at the back
of the rail at two opposite points the male part of a dovetail junction the said
male parts being at the same distance apart as the parts of the blocks hereinafter
referred to. The corner blocks at the head and foot of the bedstead have on those
faces to which the back of the rail when in position is presented, the female parts
of dovetail fastenings of a size and shape suitable for the reception of the male
parts of a dovetail fastening at the back of the rail. In order to connect the rail
to the frame of the bedstead it is only necessary to drop by a vertical motion the
male parts of the fastenings on the back of the rail into the female parts of the
fastenings on the corner blocks when the rail is immediately fixed in position.
That is, the rails can readily be fixed in position and detached from the bedstead
by a vertical sliding motion without the use of screws or other fastenings.
Either the head, or foot rail alone or both the head and foot rail may be made
and attached according to our invention.
Our improvements not only afford facility for great variety of design in the
head and foot rails but from the readiness with which the said head and foot
rails are removed from the frame of the bedstead and replaced, they afford great
facility in the storing and transit of metallic bedsteads.
L
Ontahan 1907

page_text: Improvements in the Manufacture of Metallic Bedsteads.
We, EDWARD LAWSON, trading as R. L. Crosbie & Co., of Charlotte Street,
Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, and RICHARD GEORGE
HODGETTS, of Knowle Wood, Knowle, in the County of Warwick, Manager of
Works, do hereby declare the nature of our invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement:-
Our invention has reference principally to the head and foot rails of metallic
bedsteads but also includes certain changes in the parts of the bedstead proper
which changes are necessitated by our improvements in the head and foot rails.
In order that our invention may be the better understood we remark that in
the ordinary method of manufacturing metallic bedsteads the head and foot rails
constitute integral parts of the bedsteads being either fixed to the foot pillars in
the casting process or. permanently fixed thereto by screwing or otherwise.
According to our invention we make the head and foot rails separate from the
bedstead proper and attach them to the bedstead by connections which admit of
their ready removal and replacement.
In making a head or foot rail according to our invention it may be built up in
various ways and of a great variety of styles of ornament, as our method of
attachment does not limit the designer by the restrictions inseparable from the
ordinary method of manufacture.
In making a head or foot rail according to our invention we form at the back
of the rail at two opposite points the male parts of dovetail junctions the said
male parts being at the same distance apart as the parts of the blocks hereinafter
referred to. The corner blocks at the head and foot of the bedstead have on those
faces to which the back of the rail when in position is presented, the female parts
of dovetail fastenings of a size and shape suitable for the reception of the male
parts of a dovetail fastening at the back of the rail. In order to connect the rail
to the frame of the bedstead it is only necessary to drop by a vertical motion the
male parts of the fastenings on the back of the rail into the female parts of the
fastenings on the corner blocks, when the rail is immediately fixed in position ;
that is, the rails can readily be fixed in position and detached from the bedstead
by a vertical sliding motion without the use of screws or other fastenings...
Either the head or foot rail alone or both the head and foot rails may be made
and attached according to our invention.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings represents in perspective a metallic
bedstead, without the head and foot rails, constructed according to our invention;
Figures 2 and 3 represent front and back views respectively of the foot end of
the said bedstead with the foot rail attached; Figure 4 is a portion of the foot
rail and one of the corner blocks of the bedstead before engagement and Figure
is a portion of the head rail and one of the corner blocks of the bedstead before
engagement.
The same letters of reference indicate the same parts in the several figures of
the drawings.
In making a bedstead according to our invention we form the bedstead frame a,
a, a, a, legs b, b, b, b and corner blocks c, c, c, c separate from, that is, independent
of, the head and foot rails as will be best understood by reference to Figures 2
and 3 and we attach the head and foot rails thereto, which rails are without the
ordinary end angle bars, in the following manner.
We make the corner blocks c, c, c, c of the bedstead frame each with two recesses

page_text: or female parts of dovetails marked respectively c, c², the said recesses c¹, c²
being at opposite ends or sides of the corner block, and we form on the inner side,
that is, at the back of the head and foot rails, by chill casting, blocks d, d carry-
ing he- or male parts d² of dovetails.
With the she- or female parts c', c¹ of the dovetails of the corner blocks the
side angle bars of the bedstead engage in the ordinary way and when the bedstead
has been put together in the way represented in Figure I the head and foot rails
are placed in position by engaging their dovetail connections d with the she or
female part of the dovetail in the corner block c as will be best understood by
reference to Figures 2, 3, 4 and 5, Figures 4 and 5 showing the parts at one
corner of the bedstead before engagement, and Figures 2 and 3 illustrating the
connection of the foot rail at both corners of the foot end of the bedstead.
Although we have represented our invention as applied to both ends of the
bedstead yet it may be applied to the head end only or to the foot end only, the
other end being of the ordinary construction.
The invention described and. illustrated not only affords facility for great varia-
tion in the design of the head and foot rails of bedsteads but from the readiness
with which the said head and foot rails are removed from the frame of the
bedstead and replaced it affords greater convenience in the storing and transit
of metallic bedsteads than is obtained in the storing and transit of bedsteads of
the ordinary manufacture.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that we claim
as our invention:-
The improvements in the manufacture of metallic bedsteads hereinbefore
described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings the said improvements
consisting essentially in making the head and foot rails, or either of them inde-
pendent of or separate from the corner pillars or legs of the bedstead and without
the ordinary end angle bars and attaching the said independent rails or rail to the
bedstead by forming each of the corner blocks on the corner pillars or legs with
an additional outside she-dovetail or recess for receiving he-dovetails or projec-
tions at two opposite points at the back of the independent rails or rail substan-
tially as described and illustrated.
Dated the Eighth day of June 1898.
EDWARD LAWSON.
RICHARD GEORGE HODGETTS.