One of the iconic inventions of the 1960s and the summer of love, the waterbed, is still very much in use today.
While it's fallen from the heights of popularity it enjoyed in the 1980s — when at one point they made up 20 per cent of beds sold — for some, a mattress filled with water is the key to a good night's sleep.
The modern waterbed was the brainchild of San Francisco designer Charles Hall, according to University of Technology Sydney cultural and design historian Emily Brayshaw.
"It's kind of like everything all collided at the right time," Dr Brayshaw told ABC Radio Perth's Christian Horgan.
"Charles Hall was at the design department at San Francisco State University, and it was a hotbed of alternative technology. People liked riffing on all sorts of crazy ideas and designs."
By 1968, vinyl fabric had been formulated that made the waterbed practical and durable, while traditional inner-spring mattresses had not evolved much and were still fairly firm.
When waterbeds first went on sale in San Francisco, they were sold in "head shops", which sold paraphernalia for smoking cannabis but not the drug itself, helping establish the racy reputation of the aquatic beds — at least in part.
Hall's slogan for the waterbed was "liquid support for human bodies", and while they were designed to provide a better night's sleep, Dr Brayshaw said they quickly became associated with sex.
"There is a history of designers coming up with fantastic designs and objects and people using them in different ways than the designer intended," she said.
"And this was, of course, during the summer of love in San Francisco — it's essentially a free love hippie design.
"Vinyl itself has long been considered a wee bit on the kinky side.
"[Playboy founder] Hugh Hefner had one made of possum fur, and you could get them in all sorts of colours and shapes, black vinyl, red vinyl, you could get them with mirror boards and sound systems built in."
Australia discovers the waterbed
Waterbeds arrived in Australia not long after and sales peaked in the 1980s — at one point making up one-fifth of all beds sold — but declined sharply in the 1990s.
Dr Brayshaw said mattress makers began to improve their products, with the introduction of memory foam, latex and softer options.
Waterbeds also have significant drawbacks, not least the capacity for leaking.
"They're pretty complicated, they're high maintenance, they had extra parts that required maintenance, they needed special sheets," Dr Brayshaw said.
Unlike regular beds, waterbeds have ongoing running costs, as the water needs to be heated in winter to make the bed a comfortable temperature.
"And they were terribly difficult to fill. You'd have to run a hose from your bathroom to the bedroom and there'd be literally hundreds of gallons of water," Dr Brayshaw said.
It was the water requirement that spelled the end of Dr Brayshaw's parents' waterbed in the 1980s.
"It sprung a leak and we lived on a farm in the middle of a drought," she said.
"We simply couldn't get enough water to fill it again — water was that precious a commodity."
Waterbeds still 'alive and kicking'
Although its popularity has declined, the waterbed has never completely gone away.
Today, there are still waterbed sellers and repairers around, and if a call-out to ABC Radio Perth listeners is anything to go by, a waterbed is still the best place to sleep for some.
James said he and his wife had been sleeping in a waterbed for over 40 years.
"The original one was a full-bladder queen size and as time has gone on, we're now using a twin-bladder queen size," he said.
"The beauty about that is you can adjust the water quantity to suit your particular style of sleep.
"They're baffled so that the water movement is lovely and subdued and we find that we don't sleep anywhere near as well on anything other than water."
Jenette: "Water beds are certainly alive and kicking today. People are buying them, they're a lot more comfortable and manageable than the ones from the 80s."
Sara: "I still have mine. Wouldn't have anything else. Both my kids had them up until recently. They now regret going back to normal mattresses. It's the best night's sleep."
Maree: "I still have one, soft sided. The best part is it's cool in summer and just warm enough in winter."
Not everyone became a convert though.
Rick: "We had one in the 90s and I am not sure why. It was responsible for the partial collapse of our wooden bedroom floor in our first little house. It leaked and when the heater failed was diabolically cold.
Greg: "I had one in the 1980s and it was the worst bloody thing I ever slept on, when I got rid of it the electricity bill improved by $80 a quarter."
ABC Perth in your inbox
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiZ2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDI0LTA0LTE0L3dhdGVyYmVkcy1zdGlsbC1oYXZlLWEtbG95YWwtZm9sbG93aW5nLTE5NjBzLWludmVudGlvbi8xMDM3MDE2NTbSAShodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTAzNzAxNjU2?oc=5
2024-04-14 01:42:53Z
CBMiZ2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDI0LTA0LTE0L3dhdGVyYmVkcy1zdGlsbC1oYXZlLWEtbG95YWwtZm9sbG93aW5nLTE5NjBzLWludmVudGlvbi8xMDM3MDE2NTbSAShodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTAzNzAxNjU2
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar