The modern version, invented in San Francisco and patented in 1971, became a popular consumer item in the United States through the 1980s with up to 20% of the market in 1986[1] and 22% in 1987.
A hard-sided waterbed consists of a water-containing mattress inside a rectangular frame of wood resting on a plywood deck that sits on a platform.
It was briefly mentioned by Mark Twain in his article "A New Beecher Church", which was published in The New York Times on 23 July 1871.
Twain wrote: "In the infirmary will be kept one or two water-beds (for invalids whose pains will not allow them to be on a less yielding substance) and half a dozen reclining invalid-chairs on wheels.
"[10] The protagonist Graham is placed on a waterbed in a glass case during his coma of 203 years in the 1898 H. G. Wells novel "The Sleeper Awakes".
Science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein described therapeutic waterbeds in his novels Beyond This Horizon (1942), Double Star (1956), and Stranger in a Strange Land (1961).
), internal rubber mattress and lighting, reading, and eating arrangements—an attempt to design the perfect hospital bed by one who had spent too damn much time in hospital beds.Heinlein made no attempt to build his invention, but its first builder, Charles Hall, was denied a patent claim based on Heinlein's "prior works".
[12] The modern waterbed was created by Charles Prior Hall in 1968, while he was a design student at San Francisco State University in California.
The same year, he founded Innerspace Environments, a manufacturing and sales company which became the leading retailer of waterbeds in the United States, with 30 owned-and-operated stores.
Henry Petroski of Duke University said of the waterbed: "Not only was it the cool new gadget, but it emerged during a time when the culture embraced anything different, especially a product that embodied sexual liberation".
Not only is this beneficial to those seeking mere comfort, but the removal of pressure from the spine can provide relief to those with back pain.
[19][20] However, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development warns that the form-fitting nature of the water-bed poses a danger to infants, providing a possibility of asphyxiation.
It is impossible for dirt and dead skin particles to penetrate the water mattress, which can then be wiped away periodically with a cloth and vinyl cleaner.
Plastic liners will reduce damage, but emptying, patching, refilling, and reheating the bed (and sleeping elsewhere until all this is completed) can be an inconvenience.
Waterbed mattresses, depending on the size, hold about 80–235 US gal (300–890 L) of water, which could bring the weight of the entire bed to over 2,000 lb (910 kg).