MAKING OSCILLATING SPRING LATHS FOR BEDS, COUCHES, AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Kennedy Geyelin, of 4, Lothbury, City of
London, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "MAKING OSCILLATING
SPRING LATHS FOR BEDS, COUCHES, AND OTHER PURPOSES."
Sealed the 3rd November 1857, and dated the 6th May 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Kennedy Geyelin
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
6th May 1857.
I, GEORGE KENNEDY GEYELIN, Civil Engineer, of 4, Lothbury, City of London,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "MAXING OSCILLATING
SPRING LATHS. FOR BEDS, COUCHES, AND OTHER PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
To the laths (singly or connected by a rod) of iron, steel, wood, or other
materials used for beds, couches, &c. I attach or fix a compressible spring or
springs, through which a pin is passed, having a screw and hook or eye at
one or both ends, so as to form a guide, and to allow regulating the elasticity
of the spring, which can be made of india-rubber washers, spiral steel springs,
or any other elastic material, and can be fixed in an open frame or a closed
barrel.
By this Invention it is expected to effect a great sanitary object by
superseeding those harbours of vermin, the spring mattrasses and paillasses at
present in use.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Kennedy Geyelin in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 3rd November 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
KENNEDY GEYELIN, Civil Engineer, 4, Lothbury, City of London, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of May, 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 me, the said
George Kennedy Geyelin, Her special licence that I, the said George
Kennedy Geyelin, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said George Kennedy Geyelin, my 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
"MAKING OSCILLATING SPRING LATHS FOR BEDS, COUCHES, AND OTHER PURPOSES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George Kennedy Geyelin,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their 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 I, the said George Kennedy Geyelin do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement and accompanying Drawings, that is to say:-
Under the ends or any other part of the iron, steel, wooden, or other laths
I fix a spring of india-rubber, steel, or other elastic material, which spring
being compressed, whenever a person lies or sits upon the bed, couch, &c.
forms a highly elastic sacking, and the laths being. interlaced or passed
through a centre box, as shewn in Figure 2, on whatever part of the bed, &c.
a person may sit or lie, every spring of the sacking is acted upon, and such
springs can be regulated to any strength by merely fixing or removing a
washer underneath the springs. These spring laths can be fixed to iron or

page_text: wooden bedsteads, old or new, without the least trouble, they being made self-
adjusting.
By this Invention it is expected to effect an important sanitary improve-
ment by superseding those cumbrous harbours of vermin, the paillasses and
spring mattresses. Feather beds may be also dispensed with.
There are various means of fixing the springs to the laths and the laths to
the bedstead, but the modes I prefer using are shewn in the annexed Drawings.
Fig. 1 is a hinge; a serves to hook it to the angle iron forming the frames
of the bed; 6 is the part rivetted to the laths; c is an expanding pin to
connect or disconnect the laths from the hinge; d is a steel spring, which is
compressed by e; but instead of this steel spring one of india-rubber or other
elastic materials may be used by passing a pin through the centre to form
a guide.
Fig. 2 is a centre spring in the box a. The laths cross themselves, and
the spiral spring 6 is self-adjusting to the box a and the pin c, which rests on
a stretcher d passing across; underneath the bed e are pins to allow the box
to open.
These centre springs can be placed in any part of the sacking and
in any number from one upwards, and by their means the sacking can always
be kept highest in the centre.
Fig. 3 is also a centre spring, the only difference being the spring a, which
laths so as to form, when interlaced or passed through a centre box, an elastic
sacking, which is an entire new principle.
Second, the mode of fastening the spring laths to bedsteads, &c., as shewn
in the Drawings hereto annexed.
But I do not confine my claim to the particular construction of the means
shewn in the annexed Drawings of fixing or compressing the springs, as the
plans can be modified without altering the principle of the Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Kennedy Geyelin, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
GEO. K. GEYELIN. (L.S.)