WWII Mountain Rucksack "Snow" CAMOUFLAGE COVER ("SIMMONS CO. 1942") NOS Unissued

Description: WWII Mountain Rucksack "Snow" CAMOUFLAGE COVER ("SIMMONS COMPANY 1942") New Old Stock, Unissued! (with age spotting!) This is the WWII model of the large hexagonal-shaped, pieced, lightweight, white, cotton "SNOW" CAMOUFLAGE COVER issued with each WWII Mountain Rucksack. This example is boldly stamped in black ink in a 'stencil font' i.e. with separations in each of the letters:U.S. SIMMONS COMPANY1942 + The SIMMONS COMPANY of New York City, the famed maker bedspring mattresses, most notably the Beautyrest, had a contract to manufacture the Mountain Rucksack and Snow Camouflage Cover. + This is a well-made article with LAP FELLED SEAMS. + ZERO holes, snags, tears, fraying, loose stitching, only the usual uniform yellow spotting from long-term storage. Careful soak in a mild bleach solution most likely could restore the Cover to its original bright white" condition should the next owner choose, but I have left it EXACTLY as I found it in a Rucksack. + These Camouflage Covers are one-hundred times more SCARCE than the Rucksacks themselves Often discarded by Troopers or separated from the original Rucksacks were turned back in to a Supply Sergeant, they are hard to find today! + Unlike the current "Snow" Camouflage Covers which are much heavier and have a continuous elastic band in the channel of the perimeter hem, this WWII model has: (1) It is constructed of three pieces of lightweight white SHEETING joined by lap-felled seams. (2) It has several 1/4" laid 3-strand, white cotton ROPE in the channel of the hem and can be secured/tightened at each side where the rope exits through blackened brass GROMMETS.(3) It has a sewn length of 1/4" laid 3-strand, white cotton ROPE at the top of the Cover, sewn into the seam of the hem for securing the top of the Cover to the top of the Tubular Frame. + These Camouflage Covers were typically carried in the ZIPPERED POUCH on the underside of the Rucksack's Flap. As mountaineers are well aware, there are snowfields on every continent at every season (at higher elevations above treeline), regardless of latitude. + Typically these Camouflage Covers, manufactured only during the fiscal years 1942-1945, were stamped in black ink with the U.S. surcharge and the contractor's name and year of manufacture. Manuals stressed the importance (and necessity!) of keeping ALL snow camouflage articles of clothing CLEAN, (e.g. Over-mittens, Over-Trousers, Over-Parkas) and were to be washed when soiled. Note: The AMES Ice Axe is not part of this sale, but is shown for scale. *****The Simmons Company of New York City (during WWII)An article in the Simmons in-house publication The Owl states Zalmon G. Simmons "was not the inventor or first manufacturer of bed springs. His contribution was in lowering the price so that everyone could afford them. He took a hand-made item that sold for around $5 wholesale, and developed machinery which would enable its sale for as little as 80 cents."Simmons was born in Montgomery County, New York, in 1828. He moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin, at the age of fifteen with $3.00 in "tangible cash assets." Upon finishing school, Simmons became a teacher and worked as a clerk in a general store; eighteen months later he bought the business. Simmons was an enterprising individual and eventually became the President of the Rock Island Railway Company, the Northwest Telegraphy Company and the First National Bank of Kenosha. In addition, Simmons served as mayor of Kenosha. On April 16, 1871, Simmons purchased a cheese box factory, which also made wooden telegraph insulators for his telegraph company. As payment for a debt at his store, Simmons accepted a patent for a handmade, woven-wire bedspring. Thus the Simmons legacy of mattress making was born. The company incorporated in 1884 as the Northwestern Wire Mattress Company. The name was changed to the Simmons Manufacturing Company in 1889. "By 1891 the company was the largest of its kind in the world." When Zalmon Simmons died in 1910, his son, Zalmon Simmons, Jr., assumed power and continued expanding the company. "By 1919 the company had plants from coast to coast plus sixty-four warehouses and the beginnings of an export business." Zalmon Simmons, Jr. became Chairman in 1932 and his son, Grant G. Simmons, became President of the company. Since it appeared on the market, the Simmons name has become synonymous with its bestselling product, the Beautyrest mattress. Simmons introduced the Beautyrest in 1925 for the price of $39.50, about three to four times what the consumer was paying for a wire mattress at the time. Immediately the company began advertising using an innovative testimonial campaign featuring "celebrities" like Henry Ford, George Bernard Shaw, and Thomas Edison. By 1929 Beautyrest mattress sales had reached $9 million. Grant G. Simmons wrote, "The consumer demand for Beautyrest stimulated by our national advertising literally forced hundreds of retailers who then had no interest in doing business with Simmons to carry our products."Card tables and folding chairs were added to the Simmons line in 1926. In 1940, the Hide-A-Bed sofa (which grew out of the studio couch of the 1930s) was born. Fold-out springs and mattresses were engineered to create the pull-out bed. The Hide-A-Bed became one of the company's most famous products manufactured through the 1980s.During WWII the company shifted its production to wartime needs, manufacturing 2,700 different items. Almost immediately after the end of the War, Simmons resumed production; and in 1947 it introduced the Babybeauty mattress. Other Simmons mattress models have included, most notably, the Deepsleep and Maxipedic. Throughout the years the Simmons Company has had many innovators and inventors make improvements to its mattresses and manufacturing machinery. John Marshall's pocketed-coil spring and John Gail's improvements and modifications to the manufacturing equipment are many of the most significant contributions. Together, Marshall's coil and Gail's pocketing machine made the Beautyrest mattress a reality. The Sleep Research Foundation, established in1946 with a grant from the Simmons Company, "instituted a vast research program into the scientific aspects of sleep...dedicated to an objective study of sleep from a physiological and medical point of view." The Sleep Research Center and its findings were a common feature in Simmons advertising. Simmons has continued to use advertising as a way to make its brand known to consumers. Celebrity endorsements and "glamour girls in expensive lingerie" have been a mainstay in Beautyrest advertising. Newspaper advertisements featuring so-called sale prices also have fueled demand for the products. Company headquarters moved to New York City in 1923 and then to Atlanta, Georgia in 1975, where the company still resides.

Price: 44.95 USD

Location: Little Rock, Arkansas

End Time: 2024-10-10T20:12:01.000Z

Shipping Cost: 6.85 USD