Upholstery coil springs
The overall quality of the materials and construction dictate the comfort level of an upholstered piece and its ability to satisfy the consumer over the long term.
Ancient coiled helical or spiral shaped wire objects resembling springs have been discovered in the Balkans and across Europe by archaeological teams.
[1] Wire coiled objects, possibly designed as rings or jewelry, nevertheless exhibit the properties of extension or compression springs.
Three technologies drove the development of coiled springs in the mid-1500s, enabled by advances in the quality of steel; these were time-pieces (e.g., clocks and portable watches), firearms (e.g., cannons and pistols), and vehicles (e.g., coaches and carriages).
William Felton's Treatise on Carriages of 1796[2] and George Thrupp's History of Coaches of 1877[3] give examples of evolving applications of springs in transportation that directly transferred to furniture.
His work demonstrated the phenomenon known today as Hooke's Law, which characterizes springs as providing a restoring force proportional to the extent of their deformation.
"[6] The English guild category is known as "The Worshipful Company Of Furniture Makers" but in sixteenth through nineteenth century times this trade was known as cabinet-makers.
The common nexus was the iron workers and blacksmith shops that were developing carriage springs and supplying hardware parts for cabinet-makers.
[9] In 1822,[10] Georg Junigl of Vienna,[11] Austria, received a "privilidg" which was an Austrian legal term for a patent for a wire spring used in combination with upholstery filling.
In 1826, Samuel Pratt of New Bond Street, in the Parish of St. George, Hanover Square in the County of Middlesex, received Great Britain Patent 5418[12] for "Beds, Bedsteads, Couches, Seats and Other Articles of Furniture".
In 1828, Samuel Pratt[13] received Great Britain Patent 5668 for "Elastic Beds And Cushions", which was to be an improvement in compression spring arrangements in furniture.
[14] In 1834, John Saville Crofton[15] published a book entitled The London Upholsterer's Companion, The Art Of Spring Stuffing.
Crofton notes that coil springs have been in the trade a number of years, indicating the original date of the practice is unknown and this work in the British Library has been unheeded in history accounts on this topic.
8 charcoal wire; sew them firmly to the seat, equi-distant, but not too near each other; having done this, tie them together, using the greatest precaution in doing so, in the first place, that they may be made to assist in action; and, in the next, that they may be kept perpendicular and act freely, upon which most essentially depend on the ease of the seat, and the durability and style of workmanship; then fasten the ends of the twine, with which the springs are tied, to the frame of the chair.
