Bed system

A siderail for a bed, said siderail to be attached to one side of said bed and being rotatable in a plane parallel to the plane of said one side to which it is attached, said siderail comprising:

• (a) a vertical member;
• (b) gate means formed solely as an horizontal, unidirectional extension of said vertical member so as to serve as a barrier when said siderail is in its closed position;
• and
• (c) rotation means disposed at the lower end of said vertical member to permit rotation of said siderail only 90 degrees such that said unidirectional extension extends vertically when said siderail is in its open position.

A flow control valve, comprising:

• (a) a relatively flexible hollow tube having first and second ends;
• (b) an inlet fitting connected to said first end of said hollow tube to permit air to flow into said hollow tube;
• (c) an outlet fitting connected to said second end of said hollow tube to permit air to flow out of said hollow tube;
• (d) a convex, generally cylindrical member engaging a point on the periphery of said hollow tube, said cylindrical member having a major axis parallel to the major axis of said tube;
• and
• (e) a generally circular yoke lying in a plane orthogonal to the major axis of said hollow tube, surrounding said hollow tube and engaging a portion thereof opposite said point engaged by said convex member and adapted to be advanced toward said convex member to constrict therebetween said hollow tube a selected degree, thereby to decrease the cross-sectional area of the inside of said tube at the plane of constriction and to control the rate of air flow through said hollow tube.

A portable air bed system, comprising:

• (a) a flexible base pad capable of being rolled into a relatively small diameter cylinder;
• (b) at least one air bag attached directly to said base pad, said at least one air bag comprising:
• (i) generally rectilinearly joined top, bottom, end, and side panels;
• and (ii) at least one transverse bulkhead attached only to the inside surfaces of said top and bottom panels and extending substantially completely thereacross;
• and
• (c) air supply means to supply compressed air to said air bag.