
A Bed for Fifty People? - benbreen
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/11/15/bed-fifty-people/
======
tjic
The discussion thread here strikes me as confused because people are looking
at an era several centuries back and using current norms (both economic and
cultural) to analyze it.

Beds used to be luxuries and having just 1 person per bed was very rare.

As late as Colonial America inns would put multiple people per bed. Heck, this
persisted into the 19th century! Lincoln, as I recall, shared a bed. Much hay
is made of this buy revisionists who want to use this fact to argue that
Lincoln may have been gay. (FWIW, I don't know and don't care). But the
mistake they're making is obvious.

Imagine if in 2150 people look at old pictures of people driving in the same
car and whisper to each other "ooh, kinky! ...and there's a dog in there too!"

~~~
dominotw
Growing up, our family of 4 slept on a single bed in a tiny one bedroom apt. I
got my own bed when I moved out at age of 18. I know I shouldn't be
embarrassed about it but I almost never mention this to anyone, esp in
America.

------
tokai
The character of Scrooge McDuck sleeps in a giant bed.[1] Not to share it with
anyone, but because he slept in a drawer as a child.

I think this 50-person bed is much more likely to be a status furniture than a
bed for multiple guests.

[1]
[https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0zLC0vqKlhw/U-j3euxqRuI/AAAAAAAAM...](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0zLC0vqKlhw/U-j3euxqRuI/AAAAAAAAMpM/8NcUXmm-
_Fo/s1600/US+Giant+Bed.jpg)

~~~
hammock
Yes! The donald duck comics are the best. I remember checking anthologies of
them out from the library as a kid.

------
JBReefer
I don't get why he didn't consider orgies ... this is definitely for orgies,
right? The drunk thing is a cover.

~~~
Neliquat
Thats why _I_ have a King bed downstairs.

~~~
Jaruzel
_Only_ a king? _Everyone_ knows that only the best orgies can be had in a
super-king. You should upgrade.

~~~
shiftpgdn
As far as my research indicates there is no bed bigger than a standard king. A
California king is longer but narrower.

~~~
regularfry
I sleep in a super king. 6'x6'6". It's a standard size in the UK.

~~~
bradknowles
The European King is 2.0 meters wide by 2.0 meters long.

Do the math.

We had a Euro King until we recently had to replace it. Buying sheets in
Europe was no problem.

------
Retric
Assuming a group of people needs as much space as a single to sleep is a
mistake. Feet to feet you can overlap. Further the average guest would
probably have been shorter and thinner than we are used to.

I have seen six kids in a double with pillows at either end.

------
michael_h
A bed for fifty falling-down drunk people? If you are not asphyxiated by the
morning (crushed by your neighbor or in the normal way), you can make a game
of trying to identify the different varieties of puke that coat you like a
varnish.

------
dannypgh
Having shared a twin bed before, I can believe the accuracy of the 50 number.

~~~
iopq
Also, the uncomfortable part is falling off the side or being smushed into a
wall. Being smushed into another person is more comfortable because people are
soft and you have no danger of falling off.

~~~
Nav_Panel
Honestly, I was hoping the article was about a new trend for cooperative/group
sleeping arrangements: people are soft/comfortable, sides/edges are not, so if
you put more people on a bed, fewer need to deal with being on a side/edge.

~~~
Normal_gaussian
Even better if you have a circular bed, no edges so long as it is at capacity.

------
danielam
BTW, "Da Vinci" was not Leonardo's surname. You may refer to him as either
"Leonardo da Vinci", "Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci" if there's a reason for
the longer form or simply "Leonardo" when it is clear from context which
Leonardo the author is referring to.

~~~
Brendan_EW
Thanks for reading! I thought it would be overly pedantic to diverge from the
common usage of "da Vinci". However, I was overly pedantic in calling the Mona
Lisa by its proper name, so I think it all evens out.

------
Mz
_I think de Beatis means the bed was about twenty-six feet by twenty feet,
which is 503 square feet. A twin bed is about twenty square feet, so the bed
could probably only fit twenty-five people comfortably. Durer was wrong!_

Oh, please. They said nothing about the fifty people being _comfortable._
Besides, you can absolutely fit 2 people into a twin bed. Plus, people were
generally smaller a few hundred years ago than they are now. As I understand
it, this is part of why older buildings so often have ceilings that are too
low -- because we are generally taller than our ancestors were.

(And this is without even getting into how hand-wavy old measures were).

------
amenod
> which is 503 square feet. A twin bed is about twenty square feet, so the bed
> could probably only fit twenty-five people comfortably. Durer was wrong!

How so? Twin bed is for 2 people, so that makes about 50 people. Am I missing
something?

~~~
enigmango
The calculation of 25 people uses a twin mattress as a comfortable fit for one
person, not two.

In the US, a twin mattress is the smallest adult size available, and is almost
always seen as a one-person bed. I usually see queen-sized mattresses marketed
as the average-size bed for two people, and full (one size up from twin)
recommended as the comfortable choice for single sleepers.

[http://bettersleep.org/mattresses-and-more/mattress-
sizes](http://bettersleep.org/mattresses-and-more/mattress-sizes) has a good
overview of mattress size standards (at least for the US).

~~~
Grishnakh
Twin bets aren't adult-sized, they're for kids. And full-size beds are
basically obsolete, or just for short people. They're simply too short, given
that people are taller now than they were 50 years ago. Queen size is now the
minimum normal adult size bed in the US; that's why you see them marketed as
the "average-size bed for two people".

If you're single and really want to save space, you can get "long twin"
mattresses, which is exactly half the size of a king mattress, and also the
size of the foundation used under a king mattress (x2). But most single people
these days just get a queen size, because it's long enough for most people
while providing plenty of space to spread out, but also gives you sufficient
space in case someone spends the night with you... Limiting yourself to a
(long) twin size makes it rather difficult to have a guest for the evening
unless you're really thin, which Americans generally aren't these days.

------
eppeltert
_However, European units of measurement before the metric system were a
complete mess, the Italian units of measurement in particular._

Ironic how the author then gives the measurements in feet, after converting
palmo to cm.

~~~
Brendan_EW
Thanks for reading! It is ironic, I agree.

------
jlebrech
I clicked into this expecting an invention for refugees.

~~~
cableshaft
Not too late to make your dream a reality.

------
mhd
Don't _lie_ down in that bed, people. Everyone knows that if you don't sleep
in a sitting positions, your humours get shifted all out of whack. Don't these
rich young Quincenntenials read their Galen anymore?

