Anti-quake bed can help sleepers stay safe

University students in Northeast China's Jilin province have invented an anti-earthquake bed that can automatically turn into a shelter to help people survive earthquakes.

(ECNS) – University students in Northeast China.s Jilin province have invented an anti-earthquake bed that can automatically turn into a shelter to help people survive earthquakes, a Jilin-based newspaper said.

Designed with leverage theory by students and teachers from the mechanical engineering department of Baicheng Normal University, the bed can detect tremors and sound an alarm.

At the same time, two pieces of wood on the bed will bounce up and form a triangle-shaped canopy in the center of the bed, protecting the sleeper from falling debris.

Zhong Lijun, a teacher in the department, said the tremor-detector is hidden in a bedside cupboard-like box, where a steel ball with a diameter of 10 centimeters falls in the event of a quake.

Zhong said since quakes mostly occur at night, the invention can be useful.

Chinese scientists were the first in the world to find mechanical ways to detect earthquakes. Court mathematician Zhang Heng in the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) invented the world's first seismometer, a bronze bowl with dragons on each of the eight cardinal points.