Improvements in Portable and other Bedsteads and Cots, and in or relating to Mattresses or Bottoms therefor.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 18th Aug., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 19th Apr., 1894-Accepted, 14th July, 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Portable and other Bedsteads and Cots, and in
or relating to Mattresses or Bottoms therefor.
I, FREDERICK HOSKINS, of the Firm of Hoskins and Sewell, of Bordesley, in
the City of Birmingham, Bedstead Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of
this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates, in the one part, to improvements in the construction, fitting
and mounting of portable and folding bedsteads and cots; in the second part, to the
wire fabric or mesh employed as the sacking for both portable and other
bedsteads, and in the third part to the manufacture of the said sacking or wire
fabric.
In the portable and folding bedstead part of my invention, I provide the head
end framing, which may have a half-tester or other top, with wing framings or
sides directed or coming forwardly of the said end framings, and with the same
proceeding preferably on a direct line with the pillars or corner uprights.
These winged extension framings constitute the fulcrum bars or bearing brackets
upon which pivots at the inner ends of a lengthwise folding frame, bear.
Thus the rear of the, bedstead is made into an erect and four-legged standing
frame, with the wing members of both sides connected to the pillars or corner
uprights by stays or by tie bars, directed in the same plane as the said wing parts,
and forming therewith, bars or rails.
Now the winged extensions are also tied together below the bed framing by a tie
rod or rods which give additional stability to, and tie together, the whole of the
supporting framing.
Now fitted laterally between the end pillars is a fixed end rail, and fitted and
working between the said extensions or winged framing parts, and coming nearly
up to the said fixed end framing, is the head end part of the bed framing, whose
other end extends rearwardly, and is supported by folding legs jointed to the inner
presented sides of the side members of the framing, which are preferably connected
to corner chills or the like at the ends of the said sides, and are made to incline
upwardly from the ends towards the middle, in order to give camber to the sacking
or wire fabric stretched or distended between the said ends.
The foot end rail is rigid, and when the framing is folded vertically, or made to
lengthwise take an erect position, the said end rail comes below and clear of the
cross rail of the tester head, whilst the two opposite sides of the said inner end of
the frame, at about a foot and a half or so from the extreme inner end, are supported
or hung by or from pivots or trunnions, which pass and work through bearings
made through bosses or chill castings formed at the junction of the upper with the
lower front parts of the winged framings as aforesaid.
The bedstead framing is lengthwise turned bodily upwards upon the pivot centres
coming at a short distance from its inner end, until the same takes an erect position,
and comes parallel or nearly so with the back end framing, and between the winged
and forward extension framings, which form the bearings for the pivot mounting of
the said bedstead framing.
When folded, the bedstead framing is or may be retained by catches or other
securing devices, whilst the foot end folding legs lic within the breadth of the side
framings.
The head end of the framing which dips downwards, whilst the other end forward
of the pivot centres is turned upwards, may be provided with an elevated end rail

page_text: for preventing the slipping down of the bedding in case the same is folded up with
the bedstead frame.
When such bedsteads are not in use, they take up little space, and may be stowed
away against a wall or other surface.
In the wire mesh or wire fabric sacking, the same consists of a series of diamond-
shaped frames, running in the longer direction of the sacking, and is composed of
wires running lengthwise, and of a zig-zag organization.
The junctions of the diamond-shaped frames have infibulated twists, whilst the
border frames of the mesh are half diamond only, so as to give a straight line to the
sides and ends, which latter have connected between them and the mesh bars, which
are of the fish-belly or fire bar conformation, coiled springs, for increasing the
resiliency and distensibility of the sacking.
In carrying out the manufacture of the said sacking, I take a length of spring
wire, and coil the same upon a flat mandril plate, of a depth equal to one of the
sides of the diamond frame to be formed. Then I strip the said coil from the plate,
and draw the same out nearly straight, which makes a length of wire of a zig-zag
organization, and with the junctions of the said zig-zag sides slightly cranked and
twisted, so that by taking a series of such zig-zag lengths of fashioned wire, and
bringing the whole of the same into a common direction, and turning or infibulating
the twisted or slightly cranked junctions of the one with the slightly cranked
junctions of another or adjacent length, a mesh having a wire framed structure is
thereby formed.
It will be understood that each zig-zag of each length forms a half diamond, and
when the zig-zags of two adjacent lengths are brought coincident, and the twisted
junctions of them are infibulated or brought round one with one another, a full
diamond frame is thereby formed, and by so connecting together a series of these
said strands or lengths having running half-diamond zig-zags, a wire fabric of a
diamond or rhomb pattern in a longer direction is thereby produced.
Dated this 17th day of August 1893.
FREDERICK HOSKINS,
By Henry Skerrett,
Agent for Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Portable and other Bedsteads and Cots, and in
or relating to Mattresses or Bottoms therefor.
I, FREDERICK HOSKINS, of the Firm of Hoskins and Sewell, of Bordesley, in
the City of Birmingham, Bedstead Manufacturer, 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 the construction, fitting
and mounting of portable and folding bedsteads and cots; in the second part, to the
wire fabric or mesh employed as the sacking for both portable and other
bedsteads, and in the third part, to the manufacture of the said sacking or wire
fabric.
In the portable and folding bedstead part of my invention, I provide. the head
end framing, which may have a half-tester or other top, with wing framings or sides
directed or coming forwardly of the said end framings, and with the same proceeding
preferably in a direct line with the pillars or corner uprights.
These winged extension framings constitute the fulcrum bars or bearing brackets
upon which pivots at the inner ends of a lengthwise folding frame bear.
Thus the rear of the bedstead is made into an erect and four-legged standing
frame, with the wing members of both sides connected to the pillars or corner
uprights by stays or by tie bars, directed in the same plane as the said wing parts,
and forming therewith, bars or rails.

page_text: Now the winged extensions are also tied together below the bed framing by a tie
rod or rods which give additional stability to, and tie together, the whole of the
supporting framing.
A fixed end rail may be fitted laterally between the end pillars whilst also fitted
and working between the said extensions or winged framing parts, and coming
nearly up to the said fixed end framing, is the head end part of the bed framing,
whose other end extends rearwardly, and is supported by folding legs jointed to the
inner presented sides of the side members of the framing, which are preferably
connected to corner chills or the like at the ends of the said sides, and are made to
incline upwardly from the ends towards the middle, in order to give camber to the
sacking or wire fabric stretched or distended between the said ends.
The foot end rail is rigid, and when the framing is folded vertically, or made to
lengthwise take an erect position, the said end rail comes below and clear of the
cross rail of the tester head, whilst the two opposite sides of the said inner end of
the frame, at about a foot and a half or so from the extreme inner end, are supported
or hung by or from pivots or trunnions, which pass and work through bearings made
through bosses or chill castings formed at the junction of the upper with the lower
front parts of the winged framings as aforesaid.
The bedstead framing is lengthwise turned bodily upwards upon the pivot centres
coming at a short distance from its inner end, until the same takes an erect position,
and comes parallel or nearly so with the back end framing and between the winged
and forward extension framings, which form the bearings for the pivot mounting of
the said bedstead framing.
When folded, the bedstead framing is or may be retained by catches or other
securing devices, whilst the foot end folding legs lie within the breadth of the side
framings.
The head end of the framing which dips downwards whilst the other end of the
pivot centres is turned upwards, may be provided with an elevated end rail for
preventing the slipping down of the bedding in case the same is folded up with the
bedstead frame.
When such bedsteads are not in use, they take up little space, and may be stowed
away against a wall or other surface.
In the wire mesh or wire fabric sacking, the same consists of a series of diamond-
shaped frames, running in the longer direction of the sacking, and is composed of
wires running lengthwise, and of a zig-zag organization.
The junctions of the diamond-shaped frames have infibulated twists, whilst the
border frames of the mesh are half diamond only, so as to give a straight line to the
sides and ends, which latter have connected between them and the mesli bars, which
are of the fish-belly or fire-bar conformation, coiled springs, for increasing the
resiliency and distensibility of the sacking.
In carrying out the manufacture of the said sacking, I take a length of spring
wire, and coil the same upon a flat mandril plate, of a depth equal to one of the
sides of the diamond frame to be formed. Then I strip the said coil from the plate,
and draw the same out nearly straight, which makes a length of wire of a zig-zag
organization, and with the junctions of the said zig-zag sides slightly cranked and
twisted, so that by taking a series of such zig-zag lengths of fashioned wire, and
bringing the whole of the same into a common direction, and turning or infibulating
the twisted or slightly cranked junctions of the one with the slightly cranked
junctions of another or adjacent length, a mesh having a wire framed structure is
thereby formed.
It will be understood that each zig-zag of each length forms a half diamond, and
when the zig-zags of two adjacent lengths are brought coincident, and the twisted
junctions of them are infibulated or brought round one with another, a full diamond
frame is thereby formed, and by so connecting together a series of these said strands
or lengths having running half-diamond zig-zags, a wire fabric of a diamond or
rhomb pattern in a longer direction is thereby produced,

page_text: Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings represents in perspective, a portable or
fold up bedstead constructed arranged and provided with improvements made
according to my invention.
Figure 2 represents the same folded.
Figure 3 represents one of the principal and turning joints of the bedstead.
Figure 4 represents an elevation of one of the leg joints.
Figure 5 is a cross section of the said Figure 4 upon the dotted lines A B.
Figure 6 represents the hook stop, for securing the turning part of the bedstead
when folded.
Figure 7 represents a sacking.
Figure 8 represents one of the sacking bars to which the sacking ends are
connected.
Figures 9, 10 and 11 represent diagrammatic views of the method of making the
said sacking.
a is the head end framing of a bedstead and bis the foot end. The head end a,
has a tester top a', supported by corner pillars or uprights a², terminated at the
lower and foot ends at by castors a³. e are winged and forward extensions forming
with the said lower portions at of the corner pillars, a four-legged standing frame
consisting of rod members c¹, c², c³, and cross stays c¹, co.
This said four-legged standing frame forms both the back to the head end of the
bedstead, and also the means for carrying the joint and supporting the back end of
the bed bottom d, consisting of sides d', and ends d², connected together by chills or
the like at their corners, and with a sacking d, distended between the said ends,
which consist of upright plates or bars, flat upon the top and chamfered off at the
two opposite sides, which gives camber to the bed bottom.
Now the said framing at its inner end, has opposite pivots e which take and work
within bearing bosses co, formed at the junctions of the members of each side.
The sides of the framing have supplementary stay bars or rods d³, for the purpose
of strengthening the same, whilst the sides d', are cambered or bowed.
The foot end of the bedstead has a fixed end framing f, and is also provided with
folding legs g, jointed at g², and having stops g, and further, the bed when folded
as in Figure 2, is secured by a catch (see Figures 2 and 6).
The sacking consists of interlocated zig-zag strands 1, 2, infibulated or twisted
one with another at 3, 4. The said strand is made by coiling wire upon a flat and
slightly taper plate i, as in Figures 9 and 10, then stripping the wire coil, and
pulling or straightening the same out as in Figure 11.
Figure 12 represents a portable bedstead constructed arranged and provided with
improvements made according to a further form of my invention.
Figure 13 represents a topside plan of the end part of the end framing.
In this bedstead, the general framing is provided at its head end with a
fixed and supplementary rail for keeping the bed and bed clothes in position
or for preventing the same from slipping down, on the frame carrying the mesh
being folded.
d is the framing, the mesh stretched upon it, d² are fixed end rails or stretcher
bars, each carrying upright and fixed framings or head and foot ends d³ d. The
foot end d², which carries the foot end rail do, is rigid with the ends of the sides d¹,
so likewise is the other end d², which carries the head end rail de, and which said
last named head end rail supports the bedding and bed clothes, when the bed
framing d, and bedding upon it is turned vertically as in Figure 2.
Each of these end bars d², may be strengthened by a horizontally disposed tie
rod d', connected at ds, to the ends of the sides d', and at their middles by an
adjustable and tensioning stay do.
The stand framings c, which forms the support for the inner end of the
bedstead frame to turn about as rest brackets, are connected or united together
by stay rods co, e, c', whilst the bed bottom d'is stayed outwardly by a stretcher
bar c

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
First. In folding bedsteads and cots, supporting the opposite sides of the
inner or head end of a bed frame by, and jointing the same to, a standing
head-end four-legged or like frame, substantially as set forth in Figures 1, 2
and 12.
Secondly. In portable bedsteads, constructing, arranging and providing the
same with supporting and folding means substantially as described and set forth
in Figures 1, 2 and 12.
Thirdly. In portable bedsteads, pivotedly mounting the bed or sacking framing,
at a short distance forward of its extreme head end, upon forward extensions of
the sides of a rest bracket or supporting frame c, substantially as described and
set forth in Figures 1, 2 and 12.
Fourthly. The improvements in wire fabric for sackings marked d, substan-
tially as described and set forth in Figures 1, 2 and 7.
Fifthly. The method of making the said woven wire sacking, substantially as
described and set forth in Figures 9, 10 and 11.
Sixthly. In folding portable bedstead, the improvements in the fittings thereof,
substantially as described and set forth in Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 12 and 13.
Seventhly. In portable and folding bedsteads, the general construction, arrange-
ment and combination of the parts of the same, substantially as described in
Figures 1 to 6 and 12 and 13.
Dated this 18th day of April 1901
FREDERICK HOSKINS,
By Henry Skerrett,
6, Livery Street, Birmingham, Agent for Applicant.