IMPROVEMENTS IN METALLIC BEDSTEADS, COTS, COUCHES, AND CHAIRS
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edwin Whitfield and Jonah Hodgess
Smith at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 14th February
1879.
EDWIN WHITFIELD, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Ironframe
Pianoforte Manufacturer, and JONAH HODGESS SMITH, of Birmingham aforesaid,
Iron Moulder. IMPROVEMENTS IN METALLIC BEDSTEADS, COTS, COUCHES, AND
CHAIRS."
"
Our Invention consists of the improvements herein after described in the method
of connecting the bars of angle iron, of which the horizontal frame of the bedstead,
cot, couch, or chair is composed, to the corner blocks carried by the pillars of the
said articles, by which improvements simplicity of construction, efficiency of action,
and facility in putting together and taking to pieces the bedstead or other article
for transit or other purpose are secured.
We
We will describe our Invention in connection with a metallic bedstead.
dispense with the ordinary dovetail on the end of the bar of angle iron and the
dovetail seat in the corner block. On that face of the corner block to which the
end of the bar of angle iron is to be attached we form a block of a size and shape
suitable for supporting the angle iron in the required position.
In the face of the corner block an angular recess is formed into which the extreme
end of the angle iron fits. Crossing the block or support described is a cylindrical
hole in which a pin or axis turns. This axis carries at one end an eccentric or cam,
and is provided with a head on which a key or spanner fits, and by which head the
axis and cam can be turned. That web of the angle iron which when connected to
the corner block is vertical has a nearly elliptical hole made in it near its end
sufficiently large to permit the cam and head described to pass through when they
are brought into a particular position.
In connecting the bar of angle iron to the corner block the cam and head are
brought into the position in which the hole in the angle iron can pass over the said
cam and head. The end of the angle iron is then placed upon the block or support,
its extreme end being pushed into the angular recess in the face of the corner block.
The key or spanner being applied to the head on the cam, the said cam is turned
through a small angle in the direction necessary to make the said cam approach the
corner block. The cam is thereby made to press the angle iron forcibly against the
corner block and thus lock it in position. In order to separate the angle iron from
the corner block it is only necessary to turn the cam by means of a key or spanner
in a direction opposite to that before referred to, when the angle iron is no longer

page_text: pressed against the corner block and can be removed therefrom. When the cam is
in the position in which it holds the end of the angle iron against the corner block
the head on the cam crosses the elliptical hole in the angle iron, and binds the face
of the angle iron tightly against the block or support. The key or spanner may be
applied to a head at either-end-of-the-axis carrying the cam. The position of the
angle iron may be further secured by making a rib on the upper and inner edge of
the block or support on which the end of the angle iron is supported. The said rib
is-undercut with a groove of a size proper to receive the edge of the horizontal web
of-the-angle iron. In this modification of our Invention the angle iron when fixed
in its place is secured by its end being pressed by the cam against the face of the
corner block by the extreme ends of its vertical and horizontal webs being engaged
in the angular recess in the face of the corner block, and by the edge of the
horizontal web being engaged in the undercut groove in the rib on the block or
support.
The angle iron of the sides, or of both the sides and ends of the bedstead frame,
may be connected to the corner blocks in either of the ways described; or only the
sides may be so connected, the corner blocks being cast on the end angle bars.
The application of our Invention to cots, couches, and chairs differs in no
essential respect from its application to bedsteads herein before described.