July 1877 – The Anti sea-sickness couch

Of course, as anyone who has been on a cross-Channel ferry in choppy seas will know, the experience can leave the habitual landlubber feeling rather green around the gills.

An English inventor known only as Mr Anderson, however, believed he had found the perfect remedy in the elegant form of his Equilibrio Couch.

As The Engineer explained ‘the couch is designed for use in passenger ships to counteract the rolling motion and so provide for its occupant a means of exemption from the principal cause of sea-sickness.’

The couch is fitted with two pairs of wheels running on two concave rails able to counteract 15º of roll in either direction. ‘It is thus caused to maintain its own level by the influence of gravity, and when placed transversely across the ship remains horizontal while the latter is rolling,’ noted The Engineer.

In what was presumably intended as the Victorian equivalent of Virgin Upper Class, Mr Anderson envisaged long rows of Equilibrio Couches populated by contented, nausea-free sea travellers.