IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF INVALID BEDSTEADS
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Glover at the Office
of tho Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 26th
June 1871.
I, GEORGE GLOVER, of Manning Street, St. Marylebone, in the County
of Middlesex, Plumber, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF INVALID BEDSTEADS," to be as
follows:-
The object of this Invention is to provide a bed for invalids that will
allow of their postures being changed to suit the various requirements
of the case without the patient being, handled by an attendant. To this
and I fit the bedstead with an inner frame to receive the mattress.
This frame I support on pivot pins; and so arrange it that it will be free
to swing thereon and take a vertical or nearly vertical position when
required..
In the most perfect form of my Invention I joint this frame near its
pivot supports so as to allow of the foot end being let down while the
other part retains a horizontal position, and I also joint the frame near
the head that the shoulders of the patient may, when desired, be sunk
below the level of the hips, but for the simpler and less costly form of
bedstead I provide a transverse ledge with a means for holding a soil
pan, and this I apply to the swinging frame under the drawn-up legs of
the patient, setting it up vertically and fixing it firmly in place; then

page_text: by turning the swinging frame on its pivots the patient will be brought
up into a sitting posture, his body resting upon the ledge, which coming
down with the frame will now assume a horizontal position with its
pan placed so as to receive the excretion of the patient; on the pan
being detached the patient may be returned to the prone position, and 5
the ledge being then removed the patient can lie at full length as
before.
The more perfect form however of my Invention is the application to
the swinging frame of a supplementary hinged frame which underlies
the lower half of the mattress. In this case the hinged frame will be 1
made to receive the pan, and a hole corresponding to the opening of the
pan will be made in the mattress, which hole will be filled by a stopping
piece carried by the swing frame; on dropping the lower half of the
swing frame to allow of the application of the soil pan the supplementary
frame will take the weight of the lower part of the patient's body. If it 1
is desired to place the patient in a sitting posture then the supple-
mentary frame will by the swinging of the pivot frame be caused to
form a seat by its flexure in the line of its joints. All the joints of the
frames may be stiffened by means of bolts or by catch rods, and to
ensure the automatic movement of the supplementary frame to its proper 2
position as the swing frame is rocked I provide guides on side frames
of the bedstead over which guide pins of the frame slide as the swing
frame turns on its pivot pins. For the purpose of giving motion to this
apparatus I connect the opposite ends of the swing frame with a windlass
barrel (mounted below it and crosswise of the bedstead) by means of 2
cords, and by turning this barrel by a winch an attendant may easily
rock the frame or a portion of it into any desired position, which position
may be retained by means of a locking plate and pin or their equivalent.
I am also enabled to offer the patient further facilities for availing
myself of his being brought easily to a vertical position with his feet
near the ground, I provide for his walking (when able) from the bed
by hingeing the end rails of the bedstead; on throwing these rails back
a way is opened for the patient to walk forward more easily than out of
a chair.
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