Bed
4 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Bed. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
The Encyclopedia of Founding (1892)
A term applied to numerous things occurring in foundry practice. When a prepared surface is formed in the floor on which to lay the pattern it is usually called a bottom bed. Sand that has been rammed on the bottom of a cupola or furnace, for the molten metal to rest upon, is the cupola, or furnace-bed. Open sand-plates are cast on beds, constructed by means of two straight-edges,--a parallel straight-edge and a level,--thus: one straight-edge is packed until it agrees with the level; the other is the set at the required distance, and, by means of the parallel straight-edge, each of its ends are made to agree with the level, the proof of which is obtained by trying the level on the second straight-edge, when the level will be exact if the operation has been correctly performed. The sand within the straight-edges is then brought to the requisite density, extending some little above, when another straight-edge, long enough to reach across, will serve to strike off the superfluous sand and leave a bed that will be level in every direction. See BEDDING-IN; SAND-BED; LEVEL; STRICKLE. TABLE, SHOWING THE WEIGHT OR PRESSURE A BEAM OF CAST IRON, 1 INCH IN BREADTH, WILL SUSTAIN, WITHOUT DESTROYING ITS ELASTIC FORCE, WHEN IT IS SUPPORTED AT EACH END AND LOADED IN THE MIDDLE OF ITS LENGTH, AND ALSO THE DEFLECTION IN THE MIDDLE WHICH THAT WEIGHT WILL PRODUCE. BY MR. HODGKINSON, MANCHESTER. Length. 6 feet. 7 feet. 8 feet. 9 feet. 10 feet. Depth in In. Weight in Lbs. Defl. in In. Weight in Lbs. Defl. in In Weight in Lbs. Defl in In. Weight in Lbs. Defl. in In. Weight in Lbs. Defl. in In. 3 1,278 .24 1,089 .33 954 .426 855 .54 765 .66 3 1/2 1,739 .205 1,482 .28 1,298 .365 1,164 .46 1,041 .57 4 2,272 .18 1,936 .245 1,700 .32 1,520 .405 1,360 .5 4 1/2 2,875 .16 2,450 .217 2,146 .284 1,924 .36 1,721 .443 5 3,560 .144 3,050 .196 2,650 .256 2,375 .32 2,125 .4 6 5,112 .12 4,356 .163 3,816 .213 3,420 .27 3,060 33 7 6,958 .103 5,929 .14 5,194 .183 4,655 .23 4,165 .29 8 9,088 .09 7,744 .123 6,784 .16 6,080 .203 5,440 .25 9 9,801 .109 8,586 .142 7,695 .18 6,885 .22 10 12,100 .098 10,600 .128 9,500 .162 8,500 .2 11 12,826 .117 11,495 .15 10,285 .182 12 15,264 .107 13,680 .135 12,240 .17 13 16,100 .125 14,400 .154 14 18,600 .115 16,700 .143 12 feet. 14 feet. 16 feet. 18 feet. 20 feet. 6 2,548 .48 2,184 .65 1,912 .85 1,699 1.08 1,530 1.34 7 3,471 .41 2,975 .58 2,603 .73 2,314 .93 2,082 1.14 8 4,532 .36 3,884 .49 3,396 .64 3,020 .81 2,720 1.00 9 5,733 .32 4,914 .44 4,302 .57 3,825 .72 3,438 .89 10 7,083 .28 6,071 .39 5,312 .51 4,722 .64 4,250 .8 11 8,570 .26 7,346 .36 6,428 .47 5,714 .59 5,142 .73 12 10,192 .24 8,736 .33 7,648 .43 6,796 .54 6,120 .67 13 11,971 .22 10,260 .31 8,978 .39 7,980 .49 7,182 .61 14 13,883 .21 11,900 .28 10,412 36 9,255 .46 8,330 .57 15 15,937 .19 13,660 .26 11,952 .34 10,624 .43 9,562 .53 16 18,128 .18 15,536 .24 13,584 .32 12,080 .40 10,880 .5 17 20,500 .17 17,500 .23 15,353 .30 13,647 .38 12,282 .47 18 22,932 .16 19,656 .21 17,208 .28 15,700 .36 13,752 .44 NOTE.--This table shows the greatest weight that ever ought to be laid upon a beam for permanent load; and if there be any liability to jerks, etc., ample allowance must be made; also, the weight of the beam itself must be included.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a place to sleep. If a person works in one place, eats in another, and sleeps in a third, the place of his bed is his home or legal residence. We are so accustomed to think of a bed as consisting of a bedstead, springs, a mattress, sheets, pillows, and blankets or coverlets, that we hardly realize how the great majority of people sleep. There are still tribes of mankind that lie in lairs like wild beasts. The traveler with a dog team in Eskimo land, sleeps in a fur bag and hood. He is able to lie down in the shelter of a snowbank anywhere. The Persian sleeps on an oriental rug; the little brown Jap lies on a piece of matting with a wooden block--a short log of bamboo--for a pillow; the Russian peasant places his mattress on the top of a huge earthenware stove; the well-to-do German sleeps alone in a narrow feather bed with a light, downy, feather mattress to cover him. The Romans considered the introduction of feather beds a sign of luxury and an indication that the nation was going to ruin. They first taught the rude inhabitants of Britain to sew up the leaves and hair of their beds in ticks. In the time of Francis I the French bed of state was so high that it required a stepladder. The uncorrupted American Indian slept between fur robes; the Kentucky settler made a bunk or platform of poles in one corner of the cabin. In this he piled beech and oak leaves and covered them with furs, making a bed fit for royalty. The woodsman of the north gathers the ends of spruce boughs and arranges them, tips upward, to form a fragrant bed. Wrapped in his blanket, he sleeps a sleep unknown to the inhabitant of the city. The lumberman constructs board bunks half filled with hay, on which he spreads his blankets. In the Gulf States, the bedstead, usually with four high posts, is still protected by a rectangular canopy to exclude insects. Of late, bedsteads of enameled iron, vermin proof, have come into favor. Hair mattresses are preferred to feathers because they afford better ventilation. See Furniture Swarm. Honeycomb. Drone. Queen bee. Worker. Larva. Bees 2026 Editor's Note: This page uses language about race that was commonplace when the book was published and is offensive by today's standards. The text has been left exactly as it was printed, rather than cut or softened, so that the historical record — including how ordinary such language once was — is preserved. (Ed: BR 2026-07-22)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in ordinary language, an article Originally, a bed was the skin of a beast stretched upon the floor; then rushes, heath, and after a time straw were substituted. A modern bed consists of a large mattress stuffed with feathers, hair, or other materials, with bolster, pillow, sheets, blankets, etc., the whole raised from the ground on a bedstead. The term bed sometimes excludes and sometimes includes the bedstead. In bed of a native, at least on his travels, India, and other Eastern countries, the carpet; his bed clothes are his scarf or is simply a mat, a rug , or a bit of old plaid. piece or portion of anything on which In mechanics, a bed is the foundation the body of it rests, as the bed piece of grinding mill; or the box, body, or rea steam engine ; the lower stone of a ceptacle of a vehicle . sician and author, born in Sheffield, April
An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920)
Graham's Magnetic : A magnetic contrivance made use of by one Graham, physician and magnetist of Edinburgh. His whole house, which he termed the Temple of Hygeia, was of great magnificence, but particularly did splendour prevail in the room wherein was set the magnetic bed. The bed itself rested on six transparent pillars; the mattresses were soaked with oriental perfumes; the bedclothes were of satin, in tints of purple and sky-blue. A healing stream of magnetism, as well as fragrant and strengthening medicines, were introduced into the sleeping apartment through glass tubes and cylinders. To these attractions were added the soft strains of hidden flutes, harmonicons, and a large organ. Permission to use this celestial couch, so soothing to shattered nerves, was accorded only to those who sent a written application to its owner, inclosing £50 sterling.