Tyler Howe (; August 11, 1800 – June 9, 1880) was an American inventor and manufacturer who developed the first

box-spring Queen size box-spring on metal bed frame 8-way hand-tied box spring A box-spring (or divan in some countries) is a type of bed base typically consisting of a sturdy wooden frame covered in cloth and containing springs. Usually the box-spri ...

bed A bed is an item of furniture that is used as a place to sleep, rest, and relax. Most modern beds consist of a soft, cushioned mattress on a bed frame. The mattress rests either on a solid base, often wood slats, or a sprung base. Many beds ...

Life and career

Tyler Howe was born on August 11, 1800, to Elijah and Frances "Fanny" ( Bemis) Howe in Spencer,

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. He was the fifth of 10 children, and the fifth-eldest son. His father was a farmer who spent many hours improving his own farm equipment. Tyler was born in their family's one-room farmhouse, known as Howe's Mills. Howe was educated in the local public schools, and spent his childhood and teen years assisting on the farm as well as at his father's

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

and

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

. In 1833, having invented a machine that cut palm leaves into strips for weaving into hats, Howe moved to

Watertown, Massachusetts Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and is part of Greater Boston. The population was 35,329 in the 2020 census. Its neighborhoods include Bemis, Coolidge Square, East Watertown, Watertown Square, and the West End. Waterto ...

, and established a palm leaf factory there. He moved his business to the neighborhood of

Cambridgeport Cambridgeport is one of the neighborhoods of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is bounded by Massachusetts Avenue, the Charles River, the Grand Junction Railroad, and River Street. The neighborhood contains predominantly residential homes, many of the ...

in nearby

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

, in 1835.

The box-spring bed

Hearing of the 1848 California Gold Rush, Howe sailed around

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

through the

Drake Passage The Drake Passage (referred to as Mar de Hoces Hoces Sea"in Spanish-speaking countries) is the body of water between South America's Cape Horn, Chile and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It connects the southwestern part of the Atla ...

to reach

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. He returned to

in 1850, having run out of money and found no gold. The trip to California was a harsh one, particularly the sleeping accommodations. Beds consisted of little more than planks of wood nailed to a frame, and the slightest movement of the ship was transferred to the sleeper—making for restless sleep, and often inducing

seasickness Motion sickness occurs due to a difference between actual and expected motion. Symptoms commonly include nausea, vomiting, cold sweat, headache, dizziness, tiredness, loss of appetite, and increased salivation. Complications may rarely include d ...

. Determined to invent an improved bed, Howe began work on a bed in which elliptical springs supported free-floating slats, and the frame of the bed kept the slats in a rectangular shape. In 1853, Tyler Howe developed the first box-spring bed. He established a factory in Cambridgeport to begin manufacture of his invention, on which he received a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

in 1855. With his second-eldest son, Otis, he formed a company, Tyler Howe & Co., that same year to manufacture and market the box-spring. The company later changed its name to Howe Spring-Bed Company, and opened a showroom at 173 Canal Street in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Howe and his son later patented a number of improvements to the box-spring, and Howe became very wealthy. Howe was healthy and still working at his factory even at the end of his life. He died on June 9, 1880, at his home in Cambridge, several days after suffering a stroke.

Personal life

Tyler Howe married Marcia Ann Prouty (also of Spencer, Massachusetts) on March 31, 1822. She died in 1872. The couple had six children. Howe's younger brother, William (born in 1803) invented the

Howe truss A Howe truss is a truss bridge consisting of chords, verticals, and diagonals whose vertical members are in tension and whose diagonal members are in compression. The Howe truss was invented by William Howe in 1840, and was widely used as a bridg ...

bridge. His nephew, Elias Howe, Jr., invented the first practical sewing machine.

References

;Notes ;Citations

Bibliography

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