Why Iron Beds In the 1800′s??????

22Feb/12Off

January 26th, 2012

Since the Pilgrims stepped off the Mayflower, man had to come up with a way to elevate himself off the ground when he slept. The best way to do that in a world that had yet to be settled or cleared was with wood. Wooden bed frames were also what was being employed in Europe before man discovered this country. So it was natural for the first settlers to use the expertise they had in the old country and build what they needed from wood. There certainly was an abundance of wood. For close to 300 years wood was the only substance bed frames were made out of.

So what was it that suddenly brought iron beds into popularity?

It happened to be two main things…………..

It is said that “necessity is the mother of invention”. That being the case, in the late 1700′s and early 1800′s man had become increasingly unhappy with the wooden beds that had served him so well those first 300 years. His displeasure came in the form of a tiny little insect called a Termite. It was also accompanied by rats and rodents that infested many of the city dwelling's,apartments and properties at the time.

Iron beds appeared to be the answer to both of those problems. Foundries and manufacturers of iron beds built them higher off the ground to help remove the pesky little creatures. Another unforeseen perk in elevating the side rails and thus elevating the mattress, was getting away from those cold drafts that were closer to the floor. As we all know, heat rises and cold settles closer to the ground. Termites automatically wanted nothing to do with the cast iron beds. When there was nothing for them to consume…… they moved on.

So why did it require three hundred years for man to start manufacturing iron beds. It was the procedure of getting the proper materials to be capable to make them. Cast iron was not being refined in the way that was necessary until the early 1800′s. The Bessemer process was the first cheap industrial process for the mass-production of steel from molten pig iron. The process is named after its inventor, Henry Bessemer, who took out a patent on the process in 1855. The process was independently discovered in 1851 by William Kelly. The process had also been used outside of Europe for hundreds of years, but not on an industrial scale. The essential principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation with air being blown through the molten iron. The oxidation also elevates the temperature of the iron mass and keeps it molten.

The steel mills in Pittsburgh started turning out the highest grade of steel, anywhere in the world. This enabled people to start making steel tubing and pig iron, that could then be refined into cast iron and poured into molds to form the castings you see on antique iron beds today.

Had it not been for the Termite problem and the Bessemer Process ……… we may still be sleeping solely in wooden beds, and iron beds may yet to have been discovered.