AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF AIR BEDS, CUSHIONS, AND OTHER LIKE INFLATED AND FLUID- TIGHT APPARATUS OR BAGS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Macintosh, of Euston Place, Euston Square, in.
the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF AIR BEDS, CUSHIONS, AND OTHER LIKE INFLATED AND FLUID-
TIGHT APPARATUS OR BAGS."
Scaled the 27th October 1857, and dated the 27th April 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Macintosh at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the.
27th April 1857.
I, JOHN MACINTOSH, of Euston Place, Euston Square, in the County of.
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVE-
MENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF AIR BEDS, CUSHIONS, AND OTHER LIKE INFLATED AND
FLUID-TIGHT APPARATUS OR BAGS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object an improvement in the manufacture of air.
beds, cushions, and other like inflated and fluid-tight apparatus or bags, and,
consists in applying in such manufactures india-rubber bags or vessels insertor!
within, and protected by tubular or hollow-knit fabrics.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Macintosh in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
27th October 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
MACINTOSH, of Euston Place, Euston Square, in the County of Middlesex,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto mic, the
said John Macintosh, Her special licence that I, the said John Macintosh,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
John Macintosh, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
luring 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF AIR BEDS, CUSHIONS, AND OTHER LIKE INFLATED AND
FLUID-TIGHT APPARATUS OR BAGS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said John Macintosh, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describo 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 John Macintosh, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what, nianner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:―
This Invention bas for its object an improvement in the manufacture of air
beds, cushions, and other like inflated and fluid-tight apparatus or bags, and
consists in applying in such manufactures india-rubber bags or vessels inserted
within, and protected by tubular or hollow-knit fabrics.
And in order that my said Invention may be must fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the way in which I prefer
to construct the several articles :-
In order to construct an air bed or cushion, I employ a number of india-
rubber tubes, about five inches in circumference when inflated, and of such a

page_text: texture that it will readily stretch and yield to the pressure of air forced into
it by the mouth; these tubes I enclose in cases of tubular-knit fabric of the
description made, or what is ordinarily known as the circular machine, which
tubes or cases of knitted fabric should, when unextended, be about eight or nine
inches in circumference, and bo capable of stretching to double that size. The
cases, with the india-rubber tubes contained in them, are closed at one end by
tying, and they are then inflated untill they become about twelve inches in
circumference; they are then secured at the open end also by tying. All that
remains to complete an air bed or cushion is to lay a series of these tubes
side by side, and in this position to secure them between two surfaces of tick
or other fabric, which are sewn through so as to confine the tubes in their
places. When it is required that the bed or cushion shall be capable of
packing away in a small space when out of use, in place of closing the ends of
the tubes by tying them, I furnish them with valves, by which the air can be
let out when the bed or cushion is to be packed, and through which the tubes
can be re-inflated when the article is again required for use. Sometimes I tio
tubes in at intervals, so as to divide up each tube into a series of air vessels of
a globular or nearly globular form, and in beds or cushions so constructed the
puncturing one of the air vessels produces less damage than when the air
vessels are not so subdivided. In place of inflating the india-rubber tubes
they may be filled with water, so as to make water beds or cushions. I some-
times also use two india-rubber tubes, 'one inside the other, the smaller and
interior one inflated with air, and the exterior one filled with water, and pro-
tected by a case of tubular or hollow-knit fabric, as before described. By
constructing beds and cushions in this way, greater elasticity is obtained than
if the india-rubber tubes were enclosed in a case of non-clastic fabric.
Tubes of india-rubber protected by cases of tubular or hollow-knit fabrics,
and provided with valves for inflation, as already described, for making beds
and cushions, may very advantageously be used as life preservers for supporting
persons when in the water.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Macintosh, have hereunto set niy
hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
JOHN MACINTOSH. (L.S.)