IMPROVEMENTS IN ELASTIC MATTRESSES AND SEATS
Year: 1854

page_text: Lemasson, Professor of Natural History, of Paris, and of 16, Castle
Street, Holborn (City), for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELASTIC
MATTRESSES AND SEATS."
Sealed the 27th April 1855, and dated the 3rd November 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Isidore Alexandre Moineau
and Jean Gustave Lemasson at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 3rd November 1854.
We, ISIDORE ALEXANDRE MOINEAU, Clerk, and JEAN GUSTAVE LEMASSON,
Professor of Natural History, of Paris, and of 16, Castle Street, Holborn
(City), do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN ELASTIC MATTRESSES AND SEATS" to be as follows, viz. :-
These improvements consist in using, instead of coiled helical & conical
springs, or any other contrivances for making elastic mattresses or upholstery,
steel blades, or flat steel springs, which, being suitably adapted, offer a much
greater and more durable resiliency, than iron wire. These springs may be
made of one or several blades each, and are suitably shaped, so as to offer the
degree of clasticity desired; a suitable number of them arranged longitudinally
and transversely is made to rest on an open or solid bolster or mattress bottoni,
& they carry at the top a system of longitudinal strips of iron or other
suitable material; the bolster_or_mattress is then covered.or_finished in the
usual way.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Isidore Alexandre Moineau and Jean Gustave Lemasson in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 2nd May 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ISIDORE
ALEXANDRE MOINEAU, Clerk, and JEAN GUSTAVE LEMASSON, Professor of
Natural History, of Paris, and of 16, Castle Street, Holborn (City), send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Isidore Alexandre Moineau & Jean Gustave Lemasson, Her special
licence that we, the said Isidore Alexandre Moineau & Jean Gustave
Lemasson, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we,
the said Isidore Alexandre Moineau & Jean Gustave Lemasson, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELASTIC MATTRESSES AND SEATS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Isidore Alexandre Moinean
& Jean Gustave Lemasson, by an instrument in writing under our hands
and seals, should particularly describe 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 we, the said Isidore Alexandre Moineau & Jean
Gustave-Lemasson,-do-hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
Our Invention refers to elastic mattresses and bolsters that have for some
years past come into use, & which are now generally made with springs of
wire, which is wound or coiled in the form of single or double cones, and even
cylindrical. These springs offer the great inconvenience of losing their
elasticity after some length of time, which we intend obviating, by replacing
these wire springs by steel blades, which, when conveniently arranged, give a
much better result than the copper, &, wires now in use, since of all metals

page_text: steel best preserves its elasticity; also, the improved mattresses or bolsters
can be made, at the same or at a less cost than common ones..
Having thus briefly set forth the nature and object of this Invention, we
shall now describe the same by referring to the annexed Sheet of Drawings,
which gives, several specimens of our improvements represented without
covering or bolstering.
Fig. 1 is a horizontal projection or plan of, a mattress intended for a bed;
Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section, passing through the centre line 1, 2, of the
plan, Fig: 1; Fig. 3 is a cross section, through the line 3, 4, of Fig.1.
The bottom of the mattress, is formed of three cross, beams a, which are
united by two longitudinal, beams b. On these beams rest the springs c, which
are formed of two blades of steel, that may be either of the same thickness
throughout or thinner in certain parts; these blades being secured or rivetted
together at their extremities. The lower blades of the springs are fixed to the
three strong pieces of wood a, and on the upper blades rest the thin flat pieces
of iron d, which are attached at their extremities to two little
cross bars
iron e, forming arcs at each end of the mattress. Moreover, these three
longitudinal ribs of iron d are covered at equal distances by cross ribs fin iron,
which are secured to the long pieces... It will readily be understood that this
mattress when finished is perfectly elastic in all its parts.
Fig. 4 represents a cross section of a mattress, in which a single spring i
extends o
ver the whole width of the mattress; three or four of these single
springs will do for the whole length, being bound by the flat iron ribs, and
thus, the whole being covered, forms a very good mattress. This arrangement
of the spring i may also be used by being placed longitudinally or even
diagonally, and binding them by the thin flat pieces of iron, and they
may be attached with strong wire or other materials placed also in different
directions.
Fig. 5 represents a large spring g, to extend over the whole breadth of the
mattress, which contains three, four, or a greater number of these springs,
bearing above and longitudinally some thin flat pieces of iron h, which the
same, as in the preceding examples, are attached to a cross bar placed at the
end of the mattress.
Figs. 6, 7, 8, and 9 represent other forms of the spring, which may be
made of different dimensions, and placed either length or crosswise, or in any
other direction. Although we have described the beams a to be strong pieces
of wood to support the springs, it will be understood that they can be made of
iron, thus making the entire mattress of metal. -
Fig. 10 shows an arrangement which is similar to the preceding ones, the

page_text: two ends of each spring being, provided with a roller, which can turn on a cross
bar. This system of flat springs may also be applied to elastic seats or bolsters,
as above stated, due attention being paid to the forms and dimensions of the
seats or bolsters which are to be made. Figs. 13, 14, 15, & 16 relate to these
arrangements for round seats; Figs. 15 & 16 shew in elevation & plan an
arrangement in which the ends of the springs carry rollers, which roll on
supports, as at Figure 10. These 'rollers may also be replaced by a mere
notch made in the ends of the springs, as represented in Fig. 17, in end. and
side elevation. The main advantage of this system consists in the suppression
of the straps generally in use to support the ordinary elastic mattresses. The
mattresses above described may also be at once converted into a complete bed,
by securing feet-or supports to the same, and the usual boards at the head and
foot of the same.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner in which
the same is or may be carried into effect, we wish it to be understood that what
we claim is, the use and application of flat steel springs or spring blades in
making elastic mattresses and bolsters, substantially as described above.
In witness whereof, we, the said Isidore Alexandre Moineau & Jean
Gustave Lemasson," have hereunto set our hands and seals, this
Twentieth day of April, in the year of our Lord 1855.
J. A. MOINEAU. G. LEMASSON. (L.S.)