Tyler Howe (; August 11, 1800 – June 9, 1880) was an American
inventor
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an id ...
and manufacturer who developed the first
box-spring bed.
Life and career
Tyler Howe was born on August 11, 1800, to Elijah and Frances "Fanny" ( Bemis) Howe in
Spencer,
. 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 separated ...
and
sawmill
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, 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 ...
. 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.
Watertow ...
, and established a palm leaf factory there. He moved his business to the neighborhood of
Cambridgeport in nearby
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most ...
, 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 souther ...
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 ...
. 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 sufficiency of disclosure, enabling disclo ...
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 U ...
. 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
A sewing machine is a machine used to sew fabric and materials together with Thread (yarn), thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies. ...
.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Howe, Tyler
1800 births
1880 deaths
19th-century American inventors
People from Spencer, Massachusetts