Bed history by Billerbeck

As far as we know, around 10,000 B.C., caveman's sleeping place was a real biomattress that could be called lair. It consisted of nothing more than a pack of branches, leaves, straw, and other substances of plant origin. This was supplemented or replaced by the popularity of hunting with animal fur, which was piled on a platform to keep themselves away from insects and the cold earth.

The earliest beds date from ancient Egypt, where this piece of furniture was highly respected, which was manifested in the fact that more and more ornate bed frames were made. Gilded, painted, carved to achieve increased beauty. Pharaoh Tutankhamun had an ebony and gold bed. The common people typically slept on a "bed" of palm leaves.

In the Roman Empire, we can also observe progress in this field. For the well-known Feasts of Lucule, beds made of wood and bronze silver were also provided for eating. Their beds for sleeping were not much different from them, gold, silver, bronze were not missing from the frames of the beds. On these furniture, however, filled mattresses made of wool, hay, reeds and feathers served for comfortable sleep. The Romans also discovered the waterbed, which was used to make them sleepy with furniture filled with warm water, so that they could lie down on their normal sleeping facilities.

The Middle Ages and the Renaissance wrapped the piece of furniture we know to date in a whole new form, since the wooden beds with the more beautiful canopy and the columnless canopies appear, where the ceiling of the bed was not placed on wooden columns, but attached to the ceiling of the room and hung from there. The mattresses were mostly made of pea shells, straw fillings, feather flakes, which were wrapped in a strong fabric and then silk. Of course, only the nobility could afford this, the common people put their heads to sleep on simple moans. Cast iron beds and straw, horsehair, or even woolly mattresses first became popular at the end of the 18th century. This was the first option where the presence of beetles and insects was no longer an indispensable part of sleep.

The next big change came in 1871, when Heinrich Westphal developed bonnel spring mattresses, which quickly became popular. In the late 1800s, the Bonnel spring replaced the Epeda spring. Epeda is barrel-shaped, and Bonnel is funnel-shaped. This spherical mantle is necessary so that the spring threads do not lie on top of each other when compressed, because it very much limits the spring path. The threads of the spherical spring are placed side by side when compressed, so they can be compressed lower. In the case of the Epeda spring, however, the spring heads are smaller in diameter, therefore the surface on the surface of use will be uncertain and it is problematic to hold the individual springs together, to merge them into a spring. This was followed by polyurethane foam, which became available to the public in the 1960s. The developed foam mattress offered a convenient alternative, at that time everyone celebrated the greatness of synthetic materials, no one had thought about the desperate level of pollution of PUE foams and the health risks. Later, the production technology of synthetic foams was quickly developed by the needs of space exploration and the military industry. The slow-form, originally energy-absorbing foams created for NASA have found popular uses around the beds. From them, the so-called "memory foam" developed. It was first used by Tempur in 1992 in mattress production, before which it did not appear in this form in the production at that time.

From today's point of view, we find it inconceivable not to rest on a comfortable structure of our choice. Therefore, Billerbeck not only pampers its customers with a large selection, but each diverse product represents the quality that has been the hallmark of the name "Billerbeck" for more than 100 years. This quality is primarily confirmed by the satisfaction of consumers, whether it is mattresses, toppers covering them, duvet pillows. The products and the Billerbeck brand also become special about the innovations they bring. Today, using the Rousseau nomenclature, the principle of "Back to Nature" is important, which at Billerbeck was able to develop in the spirit of eco-consciousness. In 2020, our company developed a new, environmentally friendly 100% recycled polyester cushioning layer. This simple but great development was first brought to the market from us and has been unique ever since. This new and practical layer is built into our trademarked mattresses and toppers.

Source: billerbeck