S03 - E03 - Dec 9, 2019
The Mattress
We moved
- Rented a trailer
- Loaded up everything
- Had to maneuver 2 mattresses
- Why?
- Where do they come from?
- What did we used to sleep on?
- Fun Fact
- Google search results in mattress company articles about the history of the mattress - had to dig a bit to find better sources
Beds Through History
- If mattresses are the ice cream, beds are the cones that hold them
- Great apes (including us humans) are unique
- We build sleeping platforms (beds)
- Other primates sleep on branches
- This shift from branches to platforms happened 23 to 5 million years ago
- This seemed to lead to a better night’s sleep and possibly to our evolution and proclivity to sleep in beds
- The theory then goes that this led to better cognitive capability during the day
- Opposing theory argues that because of the big brains, the apes sought out ways to get better sleep
- Gorilla nests are made up of leaves and branches
- On avg, 10 minutes to construct up in canopy (10-20 m up off the forest floor)
- 1.2-1.5 m long, 0.9 m wide
- Weave together tree branches
- Use the smaller limbs to craft a mattress and pillow
- Neolithic settlement in Scotland
- Beds were stone built boxes
- Beds were so high steps were needed to climb into them
- Different types of beds for different purposes
- lectus cubicularis, or chamber bed, for normal sleeping
- lectus lucubratorius, for studying
- lectus genialis, the marriage bed, it was much decorated
- Wooden frames and foldable beds that also serve as couches are big
- Carved wooden beds are out in favor of wooden bed frames covered with silks or gold
- "the century of magnificent beds"
- Louis XIV and his beds of Versailles - gold, pearls, velvet, etchings
- Advertised as being free of insects
Mattress origins
- 77,000 year old mattress discovered
- discovered in the Sibudu rock shelter in South Africa
- made from grasses and sedges (graminoid - Grass Like Bushes)
- Also used the stems and leaves of a type of laurel tree whose aromatic leaves contain insecticides that kill mosquitoes
- Arabic taraha "he threw (down)"
- medieval Arabic al-matrah "(the) large cushion or rug for lying on"
- Medieval Latin matracium
- Italian materasso
- Old French materas
- Definition of today’s mattress circa 1300 materas "a bed consisting of a bag filled with soft and elastic material and usually tacked at short intervals to prevent the contents from slipping"
- the modern spelling is attested by early 15 C
- Mattresses developed from plants and animal skins to the many forms we have today
Mattress Types
- Three different types (Innerspring, Foam and Bladder)
- A spring core surrounded by top and bottom upholstery layers
- Spring core is made up of coils and there are four types
- Oldest and most common
- Adapted from springs used in buggies in the 19th C
- Becomes popular in the late-1800s, but doesn’t really catch on until the early 1900s
- Wide at the ends, thin in the middle, ends are circular
- Put together so that they form helicals
- Similar shape to Bonnells but the ends aren’t circular
- Two sides of the ends are flattened
- The flattened ends are joined, allowing for mattress to conform to body shape
- Single wire forms all the coils
- Allows them to conform to bodies similar to offset
- Coils encased in fabric pockets
- Because they are separate (not connected in any way), weight on one coil does not affect the others around it
- Closest to the springs
- Separates middle upholstery from the core
- Typically a fiber or mesh used to keep middle upholstery in place
- Made of materials intended to be comfortable to sleep on
- Ex: foams, felt, polyester fiber, cotton fiber, wool fiber
- Typically first part to deteriorate
- This is why mattresses are double sided - extends longevity
- Top layer
- Provides soft surface texture and comes in different firmnesses
- generally a blend of the latex of the rubber tree and synthetic latex
- conforming viscoelastic foam over firmer polyurethane base foam
- Originally developed by NASA in 1966 to absorb shock, offering improved protection and comfort in NASA’s airplane seats
- Released to public domain in the 1980s
- 1990s sees creation of memory foam mattresses
- uses a more compact foam typically made from polyurethane
- Usually longer lasting and more comfortable due to the increased density
- use one or more air chambers instead of springs to provide support
- 1981
- Comfortaire manufactures original air mattress
- Water inside instead of coils inside a vinyl casing and temperature controlled
- Invented by Charles Hall in 1968 for his Master’s Thesis
- Wanted to move furniture away from a focus on design to a focus on comfort
- First tried a vinyl bag filled with liquid cornstarch
- Enveloped anyone who sat in it (though it was comfy)
- Tried Jell-o (temperature and consistency were off)
- Hall was not the first to think of the idea
- Covered a warm bath with India-rubber cloth and sealed it to prevent leaks
- Early models couldn’t retain heat (or the water) and never took off
- It wasn’t until plastic exploded in the 1930s combined with a rubber shortage that vinyl became a costly and effective product
References