CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BEDSTEADS, ONE OR MORE OF WHICH SAID IMPROVEMENTS IS OR ARE LIKEWISE APPLICABLE TO OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1831

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
WALTER WINFIELD, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Brass
Founder, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Twenty-second day of December, in the second year of
His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Robert Walter Winfield, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said Robert Walter Winfield, my exors, adñors, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert Walter Winfield, my exors,
admiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and tho
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE CONSTRUCTION OF BEDSTEADS, ONE OR MORE OF WHICH SAID IMPROVEMENTS IS OR
ARE LIKEWISE APPLICABLE TO OTHER ARTICLES;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso that I, the said Robert Walter Winfield, shall cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Walter Winfield, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the
following description thereof (that is to say):-
One of my said improvements consists in making the legs and pillars of
bedsteads of one entire tube, either formed of metal or of metals, or of metal
or metals containing wood or other materials withinside the said tube. This
tube may either be of the same size throughout, or it may be made larger
below and smaller above, or the reverse, and may be formed either cylindrical
or tapering, as occasion may require. In this mode the ordinary practice of
forming the legs and pillars of metallic bedsteads of two or more parts screwed
or otherwise fastened together is avoided, and thereby a great degree of firm-
ness is attained and much labour saved.
Another improvement consists in the modes or methods of affixing the sides
and ends of metallic bedsteads to the said legs and pillars so formed of entire
tubes, and either with or without wood or other materials inside thereof.
Fig. 1 in the said Drawing represents part of a leg and pillar for a metallic
bedstead, the upper part of which has been reduced in size by drawing it
through fit and proper tools in the usual manner. Fig. 2 is a side view or
elevation, and Fig. 3 a plan of part of a similar. tube A, A, upon which a square
metal boss or corner of a bedstead B has been affixed by strongly drawing or
forcing the tube A, A, through it to the part where it is required to remain.
This mode I prefer to merely placing the boss upon the tube, and then firmly
securing it in its place by means of pins, screws, or otherwise. From two of
the sides of the boss B plugs C, C, project for the purpose of having angle
iron sides or ends affixed thereto by screws and nuts, the screws being passed
through holes D, D, prepared in the plugs C, C, to receive them, and as shewn
in Fig. 3, and by dotted lines in Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a side view or elevation,
and Fig. 5 a plan of the tube A, A, and boss B, B, of Figs. 2 and 3, as
clothed with the said angle iron here marked E, E, E, and the screws F, F,
and nuts G, G, are shewn in Fig. 4, and the heads of the screws at F, F, in
Fig. 5.
Instead of forming projecting plugs upon the sides of the bosses B
to receive angle iron, as shewn, I make tapering dovetail grooves in two of
their sides, as shewn at H, H, in the plan of one of them, Fig. 6, and at H in
the side view thereof, Fig. 8. Into these dovetail grooves H, H, I insert the
dovetail pieces of metal I, I, Figs. 8 and 9, and which are formed on the
front ends of cylindrical metal plugs J, J, as shewn in the two latter Figures;
these plugs J, J, I insert and firmly affix into the ends of metal tubes intended

page_text: to form the sides and ends of the bedsteads. Parts of these tubes are shewn
at K in Figs. 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14, Fig. 12 being a side view, and Fig. 13
a plan of a boss B affixed upon part of a leg and pillar A of a bedstead, and
having parts of two tubes K, K, united therewith in the above-mentioned
manner. Fig. 14 represents part of a tube K intended to be fitted upon the
plug J, Fig. 9, and then to be covered with a ring or ferril L, Fig. 15, and as
shewn in Figs. 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14, for the sake of strength and ornament.
Another of my said improvements consists in the application of metal sides
and ends, and also metal substitutes for sacking to the wooden legs and pillars
of bedsteads, with a view to the preventing the harbouring of bugs, fleas, &c.
This improvement I can effect in the following manner :-In Fig. 16 M repre-
sents part of a wooden leg and pillar of a bedstead, upon which I have affixed
a square metal boss B having two square plugs C, C, formed upon it to receive
angle iron in the manner above mentioned, or I can also form dovetail grooves
in two of its sides in order to receive solid dovetailed pieces of metal mounted
on metal tubes in place of angle iron sides and ends. Fig. 17 is a plan of the
boss B, and two square plugs C, C, formed upon it, and Fig. 18 is a plan
of another metal boss B having two dovetail grooves H, H, made in two
of its sides to receive two solid metal dovetailed parts into them, as above
mentioned, Fig. 19 being an elevation thereof. Although I have shewn the
apertures in the middle of these bosses as being round or square, yet I do not
mean thereby to limit or confine myself to those shapes only, but to make
them hexangular or octangular, or of any other form, according to the purposes
they may be applied to. I have hitherto described these improvements as
applied to the construction of bedsteads only, but I do not mean thereby to
limit myself to that application, on the contrary, I can also employ my means
of avoiding the usual methods of combining the parts of metallic and wooden
bedsteads in any other case when it may be found expedient to do so, as, for
instance, in framing sophas. I do not mean or intend hereby to claim the
affixing the sides and ends of metallic bedsteads to the legs and pillars by
means of plugs where angle iron is used, or dovetails where tubes are used to
form the said sides and ends, but only in combination with my improved mode
of forming the said legs and pillars in one piece, and of affixing the bosses
upon them.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Walter Winfield, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of June, in the
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-two.
year
of
ROBERT WALTER (L.S.) WINFIELD.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-second day of June, in
the year of our Lord 1832, the aforesaid Robert Walter Winfield came
before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Speci-
fication aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-second day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-two.