Untitled record

G. M. WHITE. Combined Bed and Life Raft.

No. 201,728. Patented March 26, 1878.

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N. PETERS, PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHER, WASHINGTON. D. C.

United States Patent Office.

GEORGE M. WHITE, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVEMENT IN COMBINED BED AND LIFE-RAFT.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 201,728, dated March 26,1878; application filed September 11,1877,

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, George M. White, of New Haven, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new Improvement in Combined Bed and Life-Raft; and I do hereby declare the following, when' taken in connection with the accompanying drawing and the letters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and which said drawing constitutes part of this specification, and represents, in—

Figure 1, a perspective view, as used for bed purposes; Fig. 2, the same inverted, as for raft; Figs. 3 and 4, detached views.

This invention relates to an improvement in mattresses or beds for ships, and whereby the mattress may be instantly adapted to lifesaving purposes; and it consists, essentially, in a series of independent air-sacks, joining each other to form a continuous elastic bedsurface on one side, attached on the other side to combined longitudinal and transverse slats, which, in case of the bed, serve to support the mattress, being upon the under side and inverted; and placed in the water, the said slats serve as a floor or top for the raft, all as more fully hereinafter described.

A is a series of sacks, more or less in number, (here represented as eight,) the combined dimensions of which make the length of the bed, and the length of each sack the width of the bed—that is to say, the sacks lie transversely. The capacity of the sacks is immaterial, it only being necessary that their capacity should be sufficient to give the requisite buoyancy to the raft. On the under side of each of these sacks is a bar or slat, a, longitudinally of the sacks, but formingthe transverse bars in the complete article. These bars a are attached at each end to the sack. Over these bars a longitudinal bars or slats c are placed, and secured to the transverse bars a.

These longitudinal bars may take the place of the usual slats required for the support of the mattress in berths aboard ships. Preferably, each of the sacks is secured together by a hook or other device, as at e, Fig. 3.

Used as a bed, the transverse bars a hold the. ends of the sacks down, so as to prevent their turning up when a person is lying upon them, as they would do if not secured. This part of the invention is therefore applicable to other beds composed of a series of air or water sacks, such as for beds patented to this applicant.

When occasion requires, the bed may be thrown into the water with slats up, the slats then forming a deck or floor, upon which several persons may float with safety. Thus is produced a bed which, without any change whatever, may instantly serve as a life-saving raft.

I do not broadly claim a raft composed of several air cylinders or floats connected on one side to form a deck, as such, I am aware, is not new.