Improvements in and Additions to Wire Fabrics for Mattresses, Bed Sackings, and the like.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 20th Oct., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 1st June, 1894-Accepted, 7th July, 1894
PROVIDIONALITICALL
Improvements in and Additions to Wire Fabrics for Mattresses,
Bed Sackings, and the like.
We, WILLIAM WATERHOUSE and THOMAS WALLEY BLANTERN trading as
The Birmingham Mattress Company, of Acocks Green, near the City of
Birmingham, Manufacturers, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be
as follows:-
:-
This invention relates, in the one part, to improvements in, or in additions to,
wire fabrics made up from convolutions of wire intercoiled one with another, and
has for its object, the making of the edgings, or the body part of the same strong,
whilst at the same time retaining all the resilient properties found in ordinary
woven fabrics, without the addition of strengthening bands or stripes, and this is
accomplished by the introduction up the coils or up the axes or middles of the
coils or supplementary coils threaded, of single or compound closely-wound added
spirals, which are both flexible and elastic, and which besides admitting of the
mattress being flexible laterally, support the body coils generally and allow the
strengthening or added parts or bands to distend in common with the other coils
of the fabric.
In a further part, this said invention relates to means for securing woven wire or
other distensible sackings to the sides of bedstead frames, or to the side members of
mattress framings.
In carrying out my invention in connection with a cable-edged woven wire fabric,
a series of compound coils are taken and intercoiled respectively one with another,
and forming as it were, a flat band, of which each of the primary coils are made up
of two, three, four or more helical strands connected together by screwing one
within the other.
Up the middles of these primary coils, supplementary compound smaller coils are
threaded, and up the hollow axes of these smaller coils, simple or compound closely
twisted core coils are upwardly passed, and which core coils are transversely
flexible and longitudinally distensible.
This compound strip, with supplementary and core coils threaded up the body
coils, is then folded longitudinally upon itself, forming a square cable, whose
terminal edges are joined by an extra uniting spiral or spirals screwed alternately
within the coming-together edges.
Instead of supplementary spirals, the flexible and distensible core spirals threaded
up the body spirals may be employed.
A three-sided cable may be made or built up by taking three body spirals and
folding the same triangular shaped in cross section, and uniting the edges by an
extra entwined spiral.
Or the band forming the cable edge may be united at its opposite edges by a
supplementary spiral made up of compound wires.
In applying my invention to the body coils of a mattress, I introduce the elastic
and flexible core coils longitudinally up the axes of the body coils in rows at short
distances apart, so as to form strengthening bands, or at intermediate distances
apart, forming strand thickenings.
The close and elastic coils forming these band thickenings distend and are
flexible in common with the body border or stripes of the mattress, which may be
Luilt up of plain or compound coils into woven intercoiled helices.

page_text: Thus, mattresses constructed according to our invention are strengthened at
parts without the flexible and distensible properties of the mattress or bed bottom
being impaired.
The cables made according to our invention may form the borders or edgings or
strengthening stripes of chain mattresses, zig-zag wire mattresses and the like.
In connecting the said mattress sides to the bed sides, I employ a series of hook
ended wire loops, and with the hook end parts passed around and closed over the
outer coil of a cable.
In carrying out our invention of the second part, we thread each of the terminals of
the side strands or the cable edges within an open-jointed tube, preferably of the
length of the said edging, so that the strand or edging part lies within the tube, an
the body of the fabric adjacent to it passes through the open joint of it, which is of
a breadth about equal to the thickness of the fabric.
Set screws or bolts take through the framing and into the ends of the casing
adjacent to the sides or side rails where the casing edges come, and lic parallel to
the said sides.
Thus, the opposite side edges of the mattress are encased with an outer covering
in the form of open jointed tubes, into whose ends screw pins which pass through
holes in the end framings take, and affix the said encasing edges in position.
Tension may be given to the fabric by ordinary means, and the sides are perfectly
tied, in and kept from sagging by the casings.
As a still further form, we may make the casing of a hour glass or dumb-bell
section, and with the outer tube open jointed as before, and with the walls of the
said section united together by cross rivettings in the narrower parts.
Now the outer tubular part of each section is slipped upon the side rails before
the said side rails, which may be attachable and detachable, are secured or affixed
in position.
No additional means of securing the edges are necessary as the outer tubular
parts take upon and may work joint-wise upon the side rails, whilst the edges of the
fabric are held from end to end and the same enclosed or encased.
Dated this 19th day of October 1893.
WILLIAM WATERHOUSE,
THOMAS WALLEY BLANTERN,
By Henry Skerrett,
Agent for Applicants.
CUMI DIN DIMITIVATION
Improvements in and Additions to Wire Fabrics for Mattresses,
Bed Sackings, and the like.
We, WILLIAM WATERHOUSE and THOMAS WALLEY BLANTERN trading as
The Birmingham Mattress Company, of Acocks Green, near the City of
Birmingham, Manufacturers, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates in the one part, to improvements in, or in additions to, wire
fabrics made up from convolutions of wire intercoiled one with another and has for
its object, the imparting strength to, and stiffening the edgings, or the body parts
of the same, whilst at the same time retaining all the resilient properties found in
ordinary woven fabrics, without the addition of strengthening bands or stripes and
this is accomplished by the introduction up the coils, or up the axes or middles of
the coils or supplementary coils of threaded single or compound closely-wound
added spirals, which are both flexible and elastic, and which besides admitting of

page_text: the mattress being flexible laterally, support the body coils generally, and allow the
strengthening or added parts or bands to distend in common with the other coils of
the fabric.
In a further part, this said invention relates to means for securing woven wire or
other distensible sackings to the sides of bedstead frames, or to the side members of
mattress framings.
In carrying out my invention in connection with a cable-edged woven wire
fabric, a series of compound coils are taken and intercoiled respectively one with
another forming as it were, a flat band, of which each of the primary coils are
made up of two, three, four or more helical strands, connected together by screwing
or entwining one within the other.
Up the middles of these primary coils, supplementary compound smaller coils
are threaded, and up the hollow axes of these smaller coils, simple or compound
closely twisted core coils are upwardly passed, and which core coils are transversely
flexible and longitudinally distensible.
This compound strip, with supplementary and core coils threaded up the body
coils, is then folded longitudinally upon itself, forming a square cable, whose
terminal edges are joined by an extra uniting spiral or spirals screwed alternately
within the coming-together edges.
Instead of supplementary spirals, the flexible and distensible core spirals only
threaded up the body spirals may be employed.
A three-sided cable may be made or built up by taking three body spirals and
folding the same triangular shaped in cross section, and uniting the edges by an
extra entwined spiral.
Or the band forming the cable edge may be united at its opposite edges by a
supplementary spiral made up of compound wires.
In applying my invention to the body coils of a mattress I introduce the
elastic and flexible core coils longitudinally up the axes of the body coils in rows
at short distances apart, so as to form strengthening bands, or at intermediate
distances apart, forming strand thickenings.
The close and elastic coils forming these band thickenings distend, and are
flexible in common with the body border or stripes of the mattress, which may be
built up of plain or compound coils into woven intercoiled helices.
Thus, mattresses constructed according to our invention are strengthened at
parts without the flexible and distensible properties of the mattress or bed bottom
being impaired.
The cables made according to our invention may form the borders or edgings
or strengthening or stiffening stripes of chain mattresses, zig-zag wire mattresses
and the like.
In connecting the said mattress side edges to the bed sides, I employ a series of
two-eyed clips, and with one of the eyes of each clip passed around the one of the
sides of the bedstead framing and the other eye passed around the cable or rolled
edging, whereby the mattress is connected to the bedstead framing.
As a still further form, we may make the casing of a hour glass or dumb-bell
section, and with the outer tube open jointed, and with the walls of the said section
united together by cross rivettings in the narrower parts.
Now the outer tubular part of each section is slipped upon the side rails before
the said side rails, which may be attachable and detachable, are secured or affixed
in position.
No additional means of securing the edges are necessary as the outer tubular
parts take upon and may work joint-wise upon the side rails, whilst the edges of
the fabric are held from end to end and the same enclosed or encased.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings represents a top-side plan of a piece of
wire fabric, or an edging or stripe for a mattress or bed bottom made according
5 to one form of our invention.
Part of the said fabric, edging or stripe is made up of a series of treble-woven
primary coils, intercoiled one with another, and with singly and closely-wound core

page_text: coils, which are themselves transversely flexible and longitudinally distensible,
passing up the sheds or middles of the said body coils.
Figure 2 represents the body coils by themselves, prior to the passing up their
middles of the core coils.
Figure 3 represents a cross section of the fabric Figure 1, upon the dotted
lines A B.
Figure 4 represents a short length of one of the core coils upon an enlarged
scale.
Figure 5 represents a portion of the core coil, Figure 4, slightly drawn out,
showing its distensibility.
Figure 6 represents a cable made according to our invention, and with the same
being connected to the body fabric.
Figure 7 represents a cross section of Figure 6 upon the dotted lines C D.
Figure 8 represents a fabric with two core coils passed up the shed of the double
wove body coils, which are intercoiled one with another.
Figure 9 represents a cross section of Figure 8 upon the dotted lines E F.
Figure 10 represents a cable edging or stripe made according to a further
modified form of our invention.
Figure 11 represents a cross section of Figure 10 upon the dotted lines x-x.
The primary coils, forming, as it were, cages for the core coils, are intercoiled
one with another, so as to form a thickened edging.
Figure 12 represents a section of a still further form of cable edging, with the
primary coils united together in common by a middle and intercoiled primary
spiral.
Figure 13 shows a section of a cable composed of four coils united by a middle
coil, and with core coils passed up the middles of each of them.
Figure 14 represents a still further form of our invention, in which a supple-
mentary coil is passed up each primary coil, whilst a core coil is passed up each
supplementary coil.
In Figures 1 to 5, a are a series of compound primary coils, each made up of
three separate spirals, screwed or passed within each other, thus forming compound
spirals, which are intercoiled one with another, thereby forming a band, strengthening
or stiffening stripe, edging or the like, to which edging, stripe or band, a body
fabric a', composed or made up of double spirals, is united by intercoiling the coils
of body and stripe one with another.
Threaded up the middles or sheds of the primary compound coils a, are core
coils b, consisting of closely wound spirals, which are transversely flexible and
longitudinally distensible and elastic.
If necessary, the whole of the body of the mesh may be composed of intercoiled
single or compound helices, with closely wound core coils threaded through their
sheds or axes.
In Figures 6 and 7, a are compound primary coils, intercoiled one with another
and with closely wound elastic and flexible core coils b, passed up their middles,
thereby forming a cable, whilst a' are single or compound body coils united to
the cable by intercoiling the adjacent coils of cable and body mesh one with
another.
In Figures 8 and 9, a are compound primary coils, intercoiled one with another,
and having up the middles of each of the first three of them, two closely wound
flexible and elastic core coils b, which form with the coils a, through whose sheds
they pass, a strengthening stripe or edging, whilst the coils a', which have not core
coils up their middles, form the body of the fabric.
In the cable edge Figures 10 and 11, a are compound primary coils, intercoiled
one with another in-block into a six-sided cable figure, whilst core coils b, are
directed up their middles or sheds, and also by the space enclosed by the primary
coils, thus forming a comparatively solid cable, stripe or edging, to which is connected
ordinary body fabric represented in dotted lines at a'.
In Figures 12 and 13, a are primary coils, united together by a joining-up or

page_text: coupling coil a², and with flexible closely-wound core coils b, directed up their sheds
or open middles ', and, in Figure 13, with an extra core coil passed up the shed
made by the coming together of the primary coils a.
In Figure 14, a are primary coils, c are supplementary ones passed up the shel
of the primary ones, and are core coils passed or threaded up the sheds of the
latter.
Figure 15 represents an ordinary open-work woven-wire mesh provided with
interlaced core coils, which extend in common with the wires of the said mesh, and
bring the sacking back to its normal condition. a is the open-worked body me <h,
and are supplementary strengthening cords or stripes laced or threaded over a d
under the bars or wires of the mesh.
Figure 16 represents a sacking constructed according to a still further form of
my invention, in which supplementary strengthening stripes or cords are employed
underneath the body woven wire mesh.
Figure 17 represents a portion of the mesh of the coils upon an enlarged
scale, Figure 18 is one of the coils separately and Figure 19 represents a modifie
form of cord or strengthening stripe to that represented in Figure 17.
In Figure 16, a is a woven-wire open work body mesh, stretched within a
mattress frame c, and bare strengthening cords or stripes, either of the constitution
represented in Figures 17 and 18, or of that shown in Figure 19.
The strengthening cords shown in Figure 18 are made up of a series of coils,
interwoven or wormed one within the other, forming a solid tube of which the
components or elements forming it are helices or coils.
In Figure 19, the cord or strengthening strand is made in the form of a single
close-wound helix or coil.
If necessary, two or more of these coils may be combined together to form the
supplementary strengthening medium of the mesh, and although we prefer to
diagonally cross the said stripes or cords as in Figure 16, yet the same may, if
required, be directed straight from end to end of the sacking, or cross-wise, as may
be desired.
Figure 20 represents a means of tying the mattress sides of the bed framing,
which means consists of a series of open-jointed clips, with eyed sleeves.
Figure 21 represents a section of one of them.
Figure 22 is a modified form of clip, whilst Figure 23 represents a mode of tying.
suitable for an asylum bedstead, whereby patients are prevented from getting their
hands between the bedstead sides and the sacking.
In Figures 20 and 21, d is a bedstead and d' are the opposite tubular sides..
e are adjustable eyed clips, with the sleeves e', threaded upon the side members d'
and eare eyed clips having an open joint e3, through which latter, the body mesh a¹,..
of the sacking passes, whilst the clip part e, passes over the cable edge or selvage a,
of the sacking.
The parts of the clip at the junction of the barrel part e¹, with the part e², are.
united by rivetting.
In Figure 22 the attachment clip is made in two parts which are united together
by rivetting.
In Figure 23 the clip is made continuous from end to end of the bedstead and
sacking sides.
el is a tubular part, slipped upon the sides d', of the bedstead framing, and e² is a
clip part, with an open joint at e³, for receiving the cable or selvaged edge, whilst
the metal at the junction of the parts e', e², is connected by rivetting.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is
First. A wire fabric, consisting of, or made up of a series of single or compound
coils, spirals or convolutions intercoiled one with another, and with the said coils
having added to them, or located or threaded within their hollows or sheds, flexible

page_text: and elastic single and closely wound core coils or spirals, substantially as and for
the purpose as described and set forth in Figures 1, 3, 8 and 9.
Secondly. In the cable edgings, borders or strengthening stripes of woven wire
fabrics for various purposes, making up the same of a series of single or compound coils,
spirals or convolutions, united together either by intercoiling them one with another
blockwise, or by a coupling spiral, and with flexible and elastic single and closely
wound core coils or spirals passed up their sheds or hollows, substantially as and
for the purpose as described and set forth in Figures 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, and 13.
Thirdly. The improvements in wire fabrics and in the general make and
organization of the parts of the same, substantially as described and set forth in
Figures 1 to 15.
Fourthly. In woven-wire fabrics and sackings, the employment in connection
therewith, or thereunder, of a series of independent strengthening cords, stripes or
strands either crossing each other, or separated from and directed parallel to each
other, substantially as described and set forth in Figures 16, 17, 18 and 19.
Fifthly. Uniting, connecting or tying the edges or thickened edges of mattresses
to the bed or bedstead sides by sliding and adjustable clips, which embrace both
the members of the bed sides and the selvage of the sacking, substantially as, in the
way and for the purpose as described and set forth in Figures 20, 21 and 22.
Sixthly. Uniting, connecting or tying the edges of mattresses to the bed or
bedstead sides by continuous clips, consisting of an outside barrel or tubular part
and an inner side tubular and split barrel part, with the metal of the one member
united to the metal of the other by rivettings or equivalents, substantially as
described and set forth in Figure 23.
Dated this 31st day of May 1894.
WILLIAM WATERHOUSE,
THOMAS WALLEY BLANTERN,
By Henry Skerrett,
6, Livery Street, Birmingham, Agent for Applicants.