US2471125A - Bed mattress - Google Patents

Description

May 24, 1949. O N ETAL 2,471,125

' BED MATTRESS Filed June 10, 1947 /Z 1 V n I Patented May 24, 1949 UNI TED STATES PAT EN T "OLFICE BED MATTRESS Carl R. Sohn and Arthur G.-Sohn,-hicago, Ill. Application June 10, 1947,"'SerialNo. 753x348 1 Claim.

This invention relates to improvements in bed mattresses, and more particularly to an improved mattress having a stiffening member or bed-board incorporated therein.

In many cases involving back injuries and medically recognized ailments of the back such as sacroiliac sprains and strains, arthritic conditions of the back and some cases of mild deformity, a firm mattress support is highly desirable and frequently prescribed by medical practitioners. Most hospitals are equipped with boards of plywood or similar material, that can be placed on top of a mattress 0r beneath a comparatively thin, dense mattress, depending upon the degree of rigidity desired. Such a loose board, however, is difficult to store and to keep in proper position upon or beneath a mattress, and is unsatisfactory for use with a conventional innerspring mattress such as would be used by most unhospitalized cases of such back injury or ailment. Using such a board on top of an innerspring mattress would produce a bed too hard for any reasonable degree of comfort, and if an inner-spring mattress were placed on top of the board, the board would do little, if any, good.

Since most people purchase mattresses of the inner-spring type and would not wish to purchase a special mattress and bed board for a temporary condition of back injury or ailment, the present invention contemplates the provision of a combined soft and rigid mattress, one side of which may be used to rigidly support a person having an injured or ailing back, and the opposite side of which provides a conventional inner-springtype mattress.

It is, therefore, among the objects of the invention to provide an improved inner-spring mattress having a rigid or resiliently pliable board or equivalent structure incorporated in one side only thereof, so that the mattress has a firm side and a soft side of conventional inner-spring construction, either side being usable as may be desired, which improved mattress is attractive in appearance, of light weight and easy to handle, economical to manufacture, and has the bed board or equivalent structure permanently incorporated therein to eliminate the necessity of storing the board when not in use and any tendency of the board to move relative to the mattress when in use.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a longitudinal cross section through 2 a 'inattress illustrative of the invention taken on the lin'e I '-I of Figure 2 and Figure 2 is a top plan view of the mattress illustrated in Figure -1.

With continued reference to -the drawing, the numeral If! indicates an inner-spring unit which may be made up of a plurality of individual coiled springs I I tied together in the conventional manner to provide a mattress unit and covered, if desired, with a covering of muslin or other suitable fabric.

Inner pads I2, preferably of a. coarse, resilient fibre, such as sisal fibre are disposed one at each side of the inner-spring unit I 0 and an outer pad I3 of a finer fibre, such as felted cotton, rubberized cotton or hair, or other suitable or conventional material is disposed in overlying relationship to the outer side of one of the inner-pads I2. A covering I4 of bed ticking overlies the outer pad I3 and a sheet I5 of suitable fabric, such as muslin, is superimposed upon the other of the inner-pads I2. Tufting threads I6 extend through the ticking I4, the outer-pads l3, the inner-pads I2, the inner-spring unit I0, and the fabric sheet I5 and provide a tufted finish for the cover I4 of ticking fabric.

A bed board I! is superimposed upon the fabric sheet I5 and is covered by an outer-pad I8 superimposed thereon so that the bed board overlies the fabric covering at one side of the inner-spring unit and the outer-pad I8 overlies the board. A covering I9 of bed ticking overlies the outer surface of the outer-pad I8 and the ticking covers I4 and I9 are joined at their edges to a border 20 which surrounds the mattress.

The bed board I! is secured to the inner-spring unit through the inner-pad I2 by suitable means such as staples or split rings and may be formed of various materials and have several different forms. For example, the bed board may be formed. of a piece of plywood of suitable thickness ormay be for-med of a sheet of metal such as aluminum or iron or of a sheet of synthetic resin plastic and may be apertured or stamped or formed as a grid to reduce its Weight while retaining the desired degree of rigidity. case, the bed board structure is preferably resiliently pliable and the outer-paddin I8 is of sufficient thickness to provide a reasonably comfortable support for a person reclining on the mattress. Since the bed-board structure I! may be made of various materials and in various forms, the term bed-board structure hereinafter used is intended to include all such mate- In any rials and forms in order to simplify the description and the claim.

There is thus provided an improved combination mattress having a soft side, the lower side as illustrated in Figure 1, which is supported upon the inner-spring unit [0, and a firm side, the upper side as illustrated in Figure 1, which is supported on a substantially rigid or resilientlypliable bed-board structure to give it the desired degree of firmness or rigidity for the proper support of a person having a back injury or a back ailment.

The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claim rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency Of the claim are, therefore, intended to be embraced therein.

What is claimed is:

A bed mattress comprising an inner-spring unit, inner-pads of coarse fibre disposed one at .4 each side of said unit, an outer-pad overlying one of said inner-pads, ticking overlying said outerpad, a sheet of fabric overlying the other of said innner-pads, tufting threads extending through said ticking, inner-pads, inner-spring unit and fabric sheet, a bed-board structure overlying said fabric sheet and secured to said inner-spring unit, an outer-pad overlying said bed board, ticking overlying said last-mentioned outer-pad, and a border surrounding said mattress and secured at its edges to the edges of said ticking.

CARL R. SOHN.

ARTHUR G. SOHN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 718,524 Ritter Jan. 13, 1903 1,159,846 Kindel NOV. 9, 1915 2,154,910 Magaril Apr. 18, 1939 2,257,994 Zofnass Oct. 7, 1941

Images