Name: 水床曾經是一個20億的產業。發生了什麼？ (Waterbeds Used To Be A $2 Billion Industry. What Happened?)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T08:06:31.000Z
Duration: 5 min 52 s

程度副詞

Wouldn't you rather spend your evening in a waterbed?

拜託啦爸爸，買水床給我好不好？

You might not, but they were all the rage in the '70s and '80s, and they kind of developed a reputation as a mattress that was good for, you know, stuff other than sleeping.

你或許不記得，不過在 70 和 80 年代水床可是超夯，而且它們甚至號稱 ... 你懂的，適合拿來做睡覺以外的事。

But, believe it or not, waterbeds weren't actually invented to make bedtime bouncier.

但老實說，水床的用意不是用來讓你的夜晚更好玩的。

They were intended to help people get better sleep.

它們的用意是要幫助人們睡得更好。

Waterbeds as we know them were invented in 1968, just after the "Summer of Love."

我們知道的，水床出現於 1968 年，就在「愛之夏」(一場嬉皮社會運動) 的隔年。

(It was) a very open, experimental time in San Francisco.

在當時的舊金山，時代很開放，講求實驗創新。

That's Charlie Hall, the man who invented the waterbed.

這位是查利．霍爾，水床的發明者。

The waterbed was part of Charlie's thesis project at San Francisco State University.

「水床」源自查理在就讀舊金山州立大學期間寫的論文。

His idea was to create furniture that could form to the contours of a person's body without creating pressure points.

他的發想點是要製造出能夠配合人體身形的家具，讓人體不受到任何壓迫。

Famous furniture designers like Eames and Mies van der Rohe and people like that had signature chairs, but I think they were more a sculptural effort, often, than something that really analyzed comfort.

有名的家具設計師，像是伊姆斯夫婦和路德維希．密斯．凡德羅，都有自己的代表性椅子，但我認為它們比較像是一件雕塑作品，而非舒適的家具。

The key concept of the waterbed is displacement.

水床的關鍵概念就是「位移」。

So as you move, water fills the gaps, and every curve of your body gets equal support.

當你移動，水就會填入縫隙，你身體的每一道曲線都能夠得到支撐。

But research is nonconclusive as to whether or not waterbeds help alleviate aches and pains.

但研究並未證實水床是否能幫助身體緩解痠痛。

In the same way that some people like firm mattresses and others like it soft, it ultimately comes down to personal preference.

就像有些人喜歡硬床墊，有些人喜歡軟的，終究是和個人喜好有關。

Now, before settling on water, Charlie tried to make a chair filled with Jell-O and another with liquid corn starch.

在發明水床前，查理曾試著用果凍或是液態玉米澱粉填充椅子。

It was corn starch that was used to thicken cherry pies.

玉米澱粉是用來讓櫻桃派變濃郁的。

Needless to say, neither one of those really worked out, but Charlie came up with another design that was a hit.

不用說這兩個都做不成椅子，但查理這就想出了一個會風靡一時的設計。

It was a large mattress filled with water, and it could be used as either a bed or a kind of gathering space that you could have in your living room.

那就是水床墊，可以用做睡床或是當做客廳的聚會座椅。

So, so much for avoiding those sexual implications.

嗯 ... 就是想辦法別讓你往性的方面想。

接著，這項設計在 1971 年獲得專利。

It featured a coil for warming the bed so the water wouldn't get cold, and it was lined to prevent leaks.

它還配有一個加溫器，讓水不冷，床墊邊緣還有特別鑲邊預防漏水。

It was also intended to go inside a hard-sided bed frame to keep the bed from expanding too much laterally.

還有個設計是，把水床裝到一個硬邊的床框裡，這樣它就不會擴得太大。

In the late '60s and early '70s, San Francisco was the heart of the counterculture movement.

在 60 年代後期至 70 年代早期，舊金山是反傳統文化運動的中心。

So a lot of people thought the undulating mattress was pretty groovy.

所以很多人覺得會波動的床墊還 ...... 挺酷的。

Hugh Hefner had one, according to a 1971 article from Time magazine. "King-size, covered with Tasmanian opossum."

休．海夫納 (《花花公子》雜誌創辦人) 也有一張， 1971 年的《時代》雜誌是這樣寫的：「國王尺寸床墊，上面滿滿都是塔斯馬尼亞負鼠。」

Charlie sold waterbeds to some other notable figures, like one of the Smothers Brothers and Jefferson Airplane.

其他知名人物同樣也向查理購買水床，像是斯慕德斯兄弟組合的其中一員，和傑佛森飛船合唱團。

他有些顧客甚至是裸體主義團體。

By the late '80s, the waterbed industry had reached around $2 billion and accounted for about 12% to 15% of the market in the US.

到了 80 年代晚期，水床產業已達到約 20 億美金，佔據美國市場約 12% 至 15%。

From a practical standpoint, people worried about leaks and weight.

就實用層面而言，人們擔心水床太重，也擔心會漏水。

Waterbeds, once they're filled with water, can weigh over 2,000 pounds, which makes them nearly impossible to move without draining them.

水床一旦裝滿水，可能重達 907 公斤，因此根本移動不了，除非先把水排掉。

There were also rumors of waterbeds falling straight through the floor because of how heavy they were, but Charlie says that concern was overblown.

還有傳言說水床重到穿透樓板掉下樓，但查理說這是擔憂過頭了。

Any normal construction can support a waterbed.

任何正常的建築結構都能夠承受水床。

Others didn't like the waves generated by moving around in bed.

其他人則是不喜歡在水床上翻身時造成的波動。

Any time you roll over in a waterbed, it sends waves through the mattress to the other side, which could wake up your sleeping partner or you when the waves come back your way.

你只要一翻身，波動就會傳到水床的另一端，就有可能吵醒你的伴侶，或是波動彈回來吵醒自己。

And even though Charlie Hall had patented his design, this didn't stop other producers from making knockoffs, which were often much less sophisticated.

而即使查利．霍爾的設計有獲得專利，山寨品還是義無反顧地出現，設計大同小異。

$29 bags of vinyl were being sold out of pickup trucks on college campuses and called waterbeds.

有小貨車在大學校園販賣一袋 29 美金的乙烯基，而且還冠名「水床」。

And you could lay on them, it was this giant blob, not particularly safe and not particularly comfortable.

它其實就是一大坨東西，你可以躺在上面，但其實不太安全也不怎麼好躺。

A lot of bad designs, I think, were kind of the demise of the big volume in waterbeds.

我想，那些很多很爛的設計，也預告了水床潮流的告終。

In the 1990s, new mattress designs hit the market.

在 90 年代，新的床墊設計上市了。

Tempur-Pedic introduced memory foam mattresses to the US, and Sleep Number offered adjustable beds with inflatable air pockets.

丹普在美國推出了記憶床墊，Sleep Number 也推出了內建氣囊的可調整式床墊。

Today, waterbeds account for less than 5% of the mattress market.

在今日，水床只佔了美國床墊市場不到 5%。

But 50 years after Hall's invention, he's back fighting the stigma.

但在霍爾發明後過了 50 年，他決定要擺脫這些恥辱。

His company, Hall Flotation, makes luxury waterbeds called Afloat mattresses, and they're all about helping you get a good night's sleep.

他的公司，霍爾漂浮，製造了一種稱為「漂浮床墊」的高級床墊，就為了讓你一夜好眠。

Waterbeds were sloshy and gurgly and moved a lot.

水床已經不夠看了，而且會一直波動。

Afloat mattresses have a wave-suppression system so that when one person moves, it doesn't have an effect on the other person.

「漂浮床墊」有波動控制系統，所以你就算翻身，也不會影響到枕邊人。

Charlie thinks it's a good time to get back in the waterbed business.

查理覺得現在是水床東山再起的好時機。

There's more variety in the mattress market than there used to be, so customers might be willing to branch out.

比起過去，現在的床墊界有更多種選擇，所以消費者或許會更願意嘗試不同的。

But only time will tell if these new waterbeds actually catch on.

但只有時間能證明這些新水床能不能流行起來。

For now, I guess we'll just have to sleep on it.

就眼下而言，我想我們就來睡一覺吧 (靜觀其變)！

Waterbeds are experiential, you can't look at one and tell what it's about.

水床是要試過才能知道，你無法靠外觀斷言。