Name/Title
Antique Spring-loaded mattress or box spring frameEntry/Object ID
100370Scope and Content
(AI) This artifact is an antique spring-loaded mattress or box spring frame (often referred to as an early form of a spring foundation or mattress core).
Key Features and Function:
Wooden Discs / Pressure Plates: The circular wooden discs sit atop heavy metal coil springs. Their purpose was to distribute a person's weight evenly across the metal coils, preventing the sharp wire ends from tearing into the outer fabric or padding of the mattress above.
Coil Springs: Heavy-gauge metal coils mounted onto vertical wooden slats provided shock absorption, flexibility, and support.
Context: Before modern pocket-coil mattresses or solid boxed foundations were mass-manufactured with woven wire tops or fabric encasements, bed manufacturers used individual wood or metal plates attached to coil springs mounted on wooden slats.
Inventory List from Brown's #61 Pair of elliptic wood springs. Given by Mr. J. E. Board of Blooming Grove, NY