Mattress stuffing

[KathyBradford]

Re: Mattress stuffing



Winterthur Museum has this bed with exposed cross sections of each layer. Terre, is this the sack-bottom foundation of which you spoke?

Layers are top to bottom in the following order.

• wool covering that matches the canopy and draperies
• down in linen or cotton pillow with pillowcase that matches the sheets
• feather in ticking bolster
• wool blankets
• linen or cotton sheets
• wool blanket
• feathers in ticking mattress
• straw stuffed in ticking mattress

[JacobReichwein]

Re: Mattress stuffing

Kathy, that is absolutely amazing! Thank you so much!

[Spinster]

Re: Mattress stuffing

[QUOTE=KathyBradford;80003] Terre, is this the sack-bottom foundation of which you spoke?

Quite similar. What I can't see from the picture is how the side ropes are secured to the bed.

From my understanding (and I am NO EXPERT HERE) , this sort of foundation was used on those bed rails that have the small short pegs sticking out down the side of the bed rails. The canvas 'sack bottom' made as shown was then lashed to those pegs.

In looking at how Jacob will go about having the mattresses themselves made, these cutaways give some definite illustrations. These are not simply 'sacks of stuff'--they are orderly, firmly packed, mattresses. Locating a good custom mattress maker will take a bit of time and effort, but they are out there. The oddly sized period bed of one's dreams should be found first --and lets hope Jacob has reached the bulk of his full height before investing---for this will need to be made to fit. For an investment of this size though, I'd seriously consider going with a packed cotton mattress for the bottom layer, primarily because of the cost trade off in having this made.

In teaching me how to make such a bed, Mother instructed me to pull off all the sheets and blankets and 'fluff and turn the feathers' each day, making all things smooth. Then, weekly, the straw sacking was fluffed, turned, and smoothed. Finally, as nice warm days came about in the winter, the straw tick could be sunned outside--and anytime there was a question of mustiness or bugs, the straw should be exchanged for fresh, and the old straw used for animal bedding. These sorts of beds were in use in her home until after WWII.

[KarinTimour]

Re: Mattress stuffing

Thank you so much to all of you! This has been a great help!

Mr. Stich, I have considered the fire hazards, however, is a modern room not, too, a fire hazard?

Dear Jacob:

In the midst of all this discussion of your bedding, I'm wondering a few things about "other stuff." First, how will you be lighting your room? Electricity? Kerosene? Candles? Second, will you/do you have electronics that will be in your room as well? Radio? CD player? TV? Does anyone in your family smoke in the house? Will you/do you have a smoke/carbon monoxide detector in your room?

How old is your house? I ask the last because the house I live in was built about 1910, with extensive remodeling in the 1970s, including some wiring. Two apartments were built into the basement at that point. Last week, the built in closet light in one of them shorted out, causing flames to scorch the ceiling and walls of the closet. The electrician said that we were all very lucky that the whole place didn't go up like a tinderbox.

In related news, there was a whole blitz on TV recently about fire hazards in dorm rooms (college students going back to school, etc.). On the Today Show some fire safety experts built two dorm rooms in a controlled warehouse, furnished them with the usual college student stuff. One had a sprinkler system, the other didn't. They deliberately tipped over a candle in each room, which then caught the sheets on the bed on fire. Without sprinkler systems, it took literally 4 minutes for the room without sprinkler systems to be a deathtrap with no way out.

I've survived several fires, two of them at night after I was asleep. I now never go to sleep anywhere without reviewing how to get out of the room in case of another fire. I was responsible for none of them, I don't smoke and I exclusively use electricity for lighting. I'd like to spare anyone else the experience.

Sincerely,
Karin Timour
Period Knitting -- Socks, Sleeping Hats, Balaclavas
Going to Remembrance Day? Come visit me at Chris Daley's store!
Atlantic Guard Soldiers' Aid Society
Email: Ktimour@aol.com

[Hank Trent]

Re: Mattress stuffing

In any safety question, there's a risk-reward factor. Of course there's no need to have a period room, so any additional safety risk it creates is an unnecessary one, and therefore it must seem a pointless risk to most people who couldn't care less about having one.

But darn it, to some people, having a period room sounds like fun!

Imagine if every thread on this forum came with a trail of safety posts.

"Was a Springfield or Enfield more common in the western theater?" "Guns are dangerous, keep them locked up, take a training class, are you sure you want to own one?"

"Were tents always cotton or were any still made of linen?" "Don't forget that both linen and cotton are highly flammable, and period tents won't keep you as warm as an enclosed nylon tent so be careful in cold weather..."

Generally, it's assumed the person has decided to buy a gun or camp in a period tent because, for them, the risk is worth the reward, so we move on from there.

The only reason this post is getting what to me seem like odd advisories, I think, is because it's an unusual idea... for this forum. In real life, it's not. Think of all the people with primitive hunting cabins, all the Amish, all the people with hobbies who live in close quarters with weird flammable stuff in their bedrooms, from artists (linseed oil! thinner!) to quilters (all those piles of flammable cotton!) to who-knows-what. They do those things because the risk is well worth the reward, just as we all make choices in life about risk and reward, though they may not be the same as others.

Any of us could be scrutinized and criticized for proposing things that risk our personal safety, that we nonetheless do anyway. It's called living, and it's fun.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Re: Mattress stuffing

And with my moderator top hat on...

Let us get back to the topic at hand. 19th century practices of stuffing mattresses. Thanks for all the warnings of safety and what people consider to be unsafe or fun but we need to keep our posts tailored to the discussion at hand with period references as close to pre-1866 as possible.

[JacobReichwein]

Re: Mattress stuffing

Thank you Mr. Trent :)

Actually, I don't know about the house situation. I may be moving soon, so I can't be sure yet. Of course the house will will have electricity, I just plan on not having lamps or any other electrical devices in my room. It's still a really rough plan.

[KarinTimour]

Re: Mattress stuffing

Dear Hank:

Wasn't trying to take the fun out of the discussion -- sorry if it appeared that I was. My personal history has caused fire safety to just be something that is higher in my awareness. Doesn't mean I don't use open fires, light with candles, etc. But one of my particular personal quirks tends to be thinking about "what ifs" and building that into my fun. Just as those who have guns build gun safety measures into their fun. I do use a tent when I reenact, but I also take steps to shield my lighting sources so that I"m less likely to catch my tent or clothing on fire -- and my last act before retiring is to put a bucket of water in my tent in case of need. For me, that's part of the fun -- being aware of the period danger, and building the period answer into the experience.

I've got a lot of books, research materials and cotton fabric in my home. My neighborhood has periodic losses of power in the summer time. Among my friends, I'm a standing joke for looking forward to power outages so that I can reenact right at home. When I need to use candles to light, I'm always conscious of "what would happen if I tipped this candle over right now." The second act of any power outage at my house after getting a candle lit is filling a bucket of water. Other people use flashlights and no bucket. Me, I couldn't tell you where the flashlights are, but I can find the candles and buckets in the dark. Just another way to have period fun.

When Jacob said he wanted a period room, I didn't assume that he was going to be lighting with electricity. Electronics and wiring I brought up only because they are a common ignition source of modern fires -- and if Jacob was going to have a TV, CD player and laptop in his period room that should be factored into the mix.

Jacob, if a kerosene or betty lamp overturns, throwing water on the resulting fire will just spread the flames. Period suggestion -- include a fire bucket filled with sand into your room planning. It's a period means of quickly putting out any inadvertent fires. If you're planning to light with candles, then a bucket of water is more than adequate.

Hope that's helpful -- wasn't meant to take the fun out of the discussion.

Sincerely,
Karin Timour
Period Knitting -- Socks, Sleeping Hats, Balaclavas
Atlantic Guard Soldiers' Aid Society
Email: Ktimour@aol.com

[Clsinclair]

Re: Mattress stuffing

During the late19 50's and early 60's I would stay with my Great Grandparents. Grandma Doster's father fought in the Civil War. I slept on a ticking mattress stuffed with chicken feathers. I still remember pulling out a feather and tickling my brothers nose. No electricity in the home. Wood stove and wood heater to cook and to stay warm. You never heated the bedrooms. Each bedroom had a slop jar as the bathroom was outside. Everything on the farm was done manually. Plowing was done by a mule. Water was by a manual pump. The cellar kept the canned goods cool under the house. Wash water was caught in barrels with rain runoff from the tin roofs of various buildings. Ever did a headless chicken race? These were the best years of my life.

Claude Sinclair

[Spinster]

Re: Mattress stuffing

Claude makes an excellent point here, even with anecdotal personal evidence a 100 years later.

In a similar mountain home, with the same sorts of beds, electricity arrived sometime after WWII, into a prosperous farming household with substantial acreage, adequate farm machinery, jobs with the county, and college for the children. Still, the bedrooms were unheated and without electric light. The front room had electric light, a coal fireplace, and 2 oil lamps for when the power went out (frequently). The kitchen/dining room had electric light, an oil stove and a wood stove.

Part of what we are losing in the train of thought here is the concept of a 19th century BED ROOM--a room with beds where people sleep.

[Becky Morgan]

Re: Mattress stuffing

Part of what we are losing in the train of thought here is the concept of a 19th century BED ROOM--a room with beds where people sleep.

Yes, that's entirely true. The bedrooms in most older houses weren't meant to be used as entertainment centers or even places for students to do homework. The main room of the house, whatever it might be called in a given area, served as the center up until the 1960s. In my childhood home, the upstairs bedrooms have no separate heat. When the house was built in 1924, someone did put fireplaces in upstairs, but there's no evidence they were ever used; as far as anyone who lived there remembers, the coal stoves in the kitchen and living room heated the upstairs as heat naturally rises and not because of any HVAC system.

The same is true of every old house I know, including the very old one next door lost in the 1990 floor. It was built around 1838, and several boys who grew up there marched off to war in 1861. They slept in the downstairs bedroom with their parents when they were infants. When they got a little older, they moved up to the loft with the older boys in the family. The girls, if we all recall correctly, inhabited the little bedroom which was, in later years, opened up and annexed to the kitchen. In other period houses in our area, the boys slept in the kitchen, since they were going to be up early to tend the stock anyway.

It could be that the effect our poster is after is the boardinghouse room. That would be the more common reason for having a room to himself and keeping more than a few clothes in it. Or he could go for the artist's garret:D This could be a really neat way to live history without giving up everything modern. Local fire codes and the like may intrude somewhat, but by and large the proiject should be viable and is certainly worth a try. I'd look for something other than a straw mattress, however. Having made the acquaintance of one, I wouldn't hurry to be reunited with it.

Oh: Sweet Dreams Mattress Factory in Wheeling, WV has filled unusual orders. Also, the Fort Steuben garrison, Revolutionary though they may be, does use period mattresses in their bunks and could have some suggestions.

[Spinster]

Re: Mattress stuffing

as far as anyone who lived there remembers, the coal stoves in the kitchen and living room heated the upstairs as heat naturally rises and not because of any HVAC system.

I've become so accustomed to a feature in my own post-bellum home, as well as in the 1850's home across the street, that I'd forgotten it: floor registers.

Openings between the first and second stories, in the ceiling/floor, with a metal register with adjustable louvers--heat can be channeled to the second floor, or closed off. So can conversation :D--a feature I most certainly remember from childhood, and all the things I heard the Aunts say AFTER I'd gone to bed.

[Becky Morgan]

Re: Mattress stuffing

Ah, yes, the floor register. The one in the front bedroom makes me smile because I always sneaked into my parents' bedroom on Christmas morning, lay on the floor and peeked through to see if the presents had indeed arrived (the tree was right below the register.)

Generations of children knew the joy of late-night eavesdropping. Fiddling with the register could be an art form, just enough heat, not enough, too much, hmmm, close it off entirely until the stove quits smoking...it's a vanishing piece of Americana, second to the art of firing a wood or coal cookstove. Sometimes knowing the physical shape of a house isn't enough to know how people lived there. Consider that...

...there was almost no expectation of privacy in the house. Married couples often kept their small children in the same room. Ahem. Enough said. They dealt with it. Private conversations came about while people were working, when they could sneak away or when everyone else was distracted.

...the entertainment center was the piano, if there was one. If not, it was the family, singing together, listening to someone read out loud, or playing a parlor game. There was no need for every room to have a musical instrument in it, or a large bookcase; people expected to share time.

...modern people imagine the pre-television folks to have been bored stiff. "Bored" wasn't exactly the case. Modern people are bored because their work is often not physically taxing, their commute is repetitive and they have a lot of free time. In 1860, on the other hand, farmers and factory workers were at work when the sun came up and home after it went down, and they wore out their muscles in between. Getting off the farm for anything could be a novelty. Sunday meant church, and that was all there was to it--unless you were Jewish or Seventh-Day Adventist and celebrated Saturdays. I have a hard time explaining to kids that there was an order to the week that no longer exists, that stores were most often closed on Sundays, that most country or farming people went to town on Saturday afternoons, or that a week of tent meetings in summer, far from being a bore, was a major social as well as religious occasion. There's a difference between being bored with repetition and inactivity, as we understand the term, and being tired, grumpy and worn down with the sameness of hard work. A half-day off could be a real treat and managing to trade enough work time to go visiting for a few days would be memorable.

...people didn't have, nor expect to have, huge closets full of clothes. Most of the really old houses I know have closets added in, or so small they look like the builders' afterthoughts. The clothes press was often a free-standing armoire or the like. Really wealthy women might agonize over this or that dress. The rest of us wore the best, the second-best or the work dress, depending on the rhythm of the week. Laundry was hard work, and it happened once a week unless something got really disgustingly soiled. There are old rhymes about Monday washday and Tuesday ironing. Within our generation, that has vanished, because with automatic washers and dryers, nobody waits, and with so much perma-press hardly anyone irons.
...Somebody cooked in old houses every day. Maybe they used a summer kitchen in hot weather; mostly they fired a wood or coal stove in the kitchen. The bedrooms got cold of an early morning until the first person up broke the bank on the fire and chucked on some fuel.

In short, nothing was as easy, but many things were much simpler. The shape of the house reflects that.

[Rev]

Re: Mattress stuffing

Yep, floor registers-actually passive floor registers, are something with which I'm all too familiar. They are great for spying! And, they are vitally important. When I went to the mission field of Kansas a few years ago the parsonage had no heat upstairs and no floor registers! In Kansas this just didn't make sense. It gets downright chilly up there. One of the first items of business was their installation.

I've done quite a bit of work in Antebellum homes as a restoration carpenter. One of the interesting things I've noticed is that in most homes is that the size of the bed room really doesn't change with the economic level of the building owner. They may get a little more roomy, but nothing like the apartment sized suites of today's houses. Often, even in grand dwellings, the trim, woods, and apointments were much simpler in the bed rooms.