So Minnesota: James Elwell, the man behind the mattress
[anvplayer video=”5109435″ station=”998122″]
As we head to bed at night, we should remember a Minnesotan who has helped us all get a good night’s sleep.
In 1872 while growing up in Minneapolis, James Elwell was only 16 when he invented and patented a bedspring with a wire mesh.
The invention is still used to this day.
“It’s kind of a great story,” Orville Lindquist with the Blaine Historical Society said. “He found a need, met the need, and had an opportunity with his family that could manufacture is invention.”
Money from the invention allowed Elwell to open the Minneapolis Furniture Company.
![](https://kstp.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/james-elwell-so-minnesota-05-16-22.jpg)
Inventor James Elwell and his patent for the spring mattress. (KSTP)
Elwell went into land and later become a state senator promoting parks and roads.
“He was a proponent of building good roads throughout the state,” Lindquist said. “By 1915, he caused a thousand miles of highway to be built in Minnesota.” Elwell died in 1933.