Parker's Mattress Factory Stores - All about mattresses

Ancient times Prehistoric humans, simply huddled in groups for warmth at night and slept on the ground or directly on floor boards. (In many Asian countries today people still sleep directly on the floor with a simple thin grass mat under them).
10,000 to 8,000 years ago (Neolithic period) The quest for comfort brought on the invention of the mattress and then the bed. An important change was raising them off the ground, to avoid drafts, dirt, and pests. Humans began sleeping off the ground, on primitive beds or mattresses. Most probably, the first "mattress" was a pile of leaves or grass with animal skins thrown over it. With time, humans probably also used straw to sleep on. Then, people started putting the "soft" materials on some kind of cloth, which eventually evolved to be called mattress ticking. The bags or sacks were initially filled with grass, straw, pea shucks, rags, etc.
3600 BCE The first water-filled beds were goatskins filled with water, used in Persia.
3400 BCE Egyptian people slept on palm bows heaped in the corner of their home.
200 BCE Mattresses in the Roman Empire were bags of cloth stuffed with reeds, hay or wool. Wealthy people filled the bags with feathers. Romans discovered the waterbed. The sleeper would recline in a cradle of warm water until drowsy, then be lifted onto an adjacent cradle with a mattress, where they would be rocked to sleep.
15th century In the Renaissance, mattresses were made of pea shucks or straw, sometimes feathers, stuffed into coarse ticks, then covered with sumptuous velvets, brocades and silks
16th and 17th centuries Mattresses were generally stuffed with straw or down, placed atop a latticework of rope. A typical bed of 1600 in its simplest form was a timber frame with rope or leather supports. The expression "sleep tight" comes from the 16th and 17th centuries when mattresses were placed on top of ropes that needed regular tightening
18th century Mattresses were stuffed with cotton or wool.
Mid 18th century Mattress covers started to be made of quality linen or cotton. The mattress cane box was shaped or bordered and the fillings available were natural and plenty, including coconut fibre, cotton, wool and horsehair. The mattresses also became tufted or buttoned to hold the fillings and cover together and the edges were stitched.
1857 The steel coil spring was invented and first patented for use in a chair seat.
1865 The first coil spring construction for bedding was patented. Mattresses were lumpy up to the late 1800s, when the box spring was invented. Even the box spring mattresses were lumpy, but at least the springs made it more comfortable.
1871 The German Heinrich Westphal is credited for inventing the innerspring mattress. He lived in Germany and died in poverty, having never profited from his invention.
1873 Sir James Paget at St. Bartholomew's Hospital presented a waterbed designed by Neil Arnott as a treatment and prevention of pressure ulcers (bed sores). Waterbeds allowed mattress pressure to be evenly distributed over the body.
1895 A few waterbeds were sold via mail order by the British store Harrod’s. They looked like large hot water bottles.
1900 James Marshall invents the pocket coil mattress
1930s Innerspring mattresses and upholstered foundations slowly became the most widely used form of mattresses. Artificial fillers became common. The most expensive beds of 1929 were latex rubber mattresses produced by Dunlopillow. Pocket spring mattresses were also introduced. These were individual springs sewn into linked fabric bags.
1940s Futons were introduced to North America.
1950s Foam rubber mattresses and pillows appeared on the market. Foam for cushions was on example of foam application.
1960s Modern waterbed was introduced. Due to lack of suitable materials, the waterbed did not gain widespread use until this decade, when vinyl was invented. Also, adjustable beds become popular with consumers.
1980s Airbeds were introduced. The mattress was an inflatable unit made with vinyl.
1987 Select Comfort introduced their "Sleep Number" bed, which featured an inner core of air which could be inflated and deflated on demand, to provide for variable levels of firmness