The Waves of Morpheus

It all started, recalls Designer Charles Prior Hall, with an "incredibly horrible thing" in his apartment. "I built a chair that was 300 lbs. of liquid starch encased in a vinyl skin. You would sit in this thing and it would creep up around you." The Incredible Creeping Chair, as Hall called it, failed to make the impact that he hoped for. But his efforts to improve it led him to a much splashier creation, which is now making an appearance--and creating a sensation --in department stores across the nation. It is the water bed, the bounciest bedroom invention since the innerspring mattress.

Essentially, the water bed is a vinyl bag filled with water and fitted out with a temperature-control device. Set in a sturdy plastic frame, and covered with ordinary sheets and perhaps a light blanket, it may well be an aid for insomniac mankind in its long battle with Morpheus.

Initially, Hall's concept was simple --the creation of "a mass in a room that would mold itself to you." Translating the idea into reality was more complicated. After starch proved unworkable, he tried JellO, but found it had a tendency to decompose. Reverting to simplicity, he hit upon the idea of using masses filled with water. In his first experiments, he used only cold water, but found that he "woke up with my bottom feeling like ice." A radiant-heat unit solved that problem, and after Hall spent 18 months trying to interest manufacturers and dealers in his home area of San Francisco, King Koil Sleep Products decided to try the water.

Helping Hand. In New York last week, Bloomingdale's put the bed on display. Initial reactions were much the same as at Dayton's, a Minneapolis department store; small children appeared from nowhere to bounce on the mattress, adults giggled about the need for Dramamine as they began their tests, and one shopper floated off to sleep while trying it out. Lying on the bed is an uncommonly comfortable experience. Once the initial pitching and rolling dies down, the user feels that he is being held gently in a huge warm hand.

The water bed responds in kind to any movement on it. Restrained motion produces only a soothing, rippling reaction, but more active movements heighten the response. "You can't fight the water," says Hall, "you have to go with it." Several acquaintances who have tested the water bed for Hall have equated their sensations with returning to the womb. In fact, Hall solemnly says, it has been suggested that the invention be called the "Bedwomb." So far, he has resisted the idea.

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