US496509A - Fire-escape - Google Patents

Description

G. OA -PLIS. FIRE ESCAPE.

(No Model.)

, No. 496,509. PatentedMay 2, 1893;

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UNITED I STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OA'IHARINE OAPLIS, OF RONDOUT, NEW YORK.

FIRE-ESCAPE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 496,509, dated May 2, 1893. Application filed December 9, 1892. Serial No. 454,594. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CATHARINE OAPLIs, a citizen of the United States, residing at Rondout, in the county of Ulster and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fire-Escapes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to that class of fire escapes which are permanently attached to houses and made accessible from the windows thereof, and the object of the invention is to provide a substantial yet inexpensive attachment for houses, convenient to be reached from any one of a column of windows where it is located so that a erson in any story of a house thus provide may quickly descend to the ground.

To this end my invention consists in the construction and combination of parts forming a fire escape, hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure I represents a corner view of a ho use in perspective, showing my invention in position for service on the left side of the house and in its normal or stored away position at the right side of the house. Fig. II, is a top or plan view of a supporter on a larger scale. Fig. III, represents a portion of my escape ladder partly in vertical section and showing different styles of steps thereon.

5 represents a house.

6 represents a rod which constitutes the body of my escape ladder, and 7 represents the supporter therefor. The supporter is preferably made of strong bar iron, secured firmly at its two ends to the house above a Window, or above acolumn of windows, its middle portion beingcurved outward as shown in Fig. II. The ladder rod 6 is provided with an eye 8 at its top, fitting loosely around the supporter 7, to hang freely thereon, so that a person in any one of the columns of windows to which it belongs may take it from the position shown at the right in Fig. I, and slide it around on the rod in front of a window, as shown at the left of Fig. I.

9 represents a series of steps or handles secured upon the rod 6 and they may be in the form of rounded knobs as shown at 10, Fig. III, so that'if a rod was grasped bya persons knees the knobs would form no suflicient ob-,

struction to catch the clothing of a person sliding down over them and yet they serve as resting places for the hands and feet. Or if it should be desirable these steps 9 may be made saucer shaped, as shown at 11, in order that a persons foot may obtain a firm hold upon each step.

There may be one supporter 7 and one ladder hung thereon for each vertical column of windows, or there may be two or more of the supporters 7 as shown at 12, with a separate ladder attached to each supporter for a column of windows. Of course these ladders may be placed at any number of columns of windows on any house.

The supporter 7 may be long enough to carry the ladder entirely beyond the space 00- cupied by swinging the blinds on such houses as have outside blinds, or the ladder may be stored either in front or behind the open blinds. V

The ladder may be made long enough to reach from the upper story to the ground, but it is more common for such escape ladders to stop at thesecond story floor, as herein shown, to beoutof reach of the burglars. Yet the usual swinging ladders may be hung below that floor, or my ladder may be hung there to be swung up and lodged out of reach from the ground as shown at 14.

Some of the advantages of this invention would be obtained by hanginga ladder of any kind loosely upon the curved supporting bar 7, but I prefer the ladder described as being the most simple and inexpensive.

This whole device is so simple and easily applied that every house owner should be able to buy one and he can put it on for himself. The certainty that it will always be within reach in time of need would be a source of comfort to dwellers in high rooms, and it may be made of any strength required to support one person or a line of persons from top to bottom, thus being perfectly reliable.

Having thus fully described my invention,

what I believe to be new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is the following:

1. The combination in a fire escape, of a cnrvedbaradapted tobeseonredtoawallabove a window therein with its ends in vertical lines that fall beyond the sides of the window; and

5 a ladder loosely hung upon the bar; the said bar and ladder being adapted for the ladder to slide upon the bar from the wall at one side of the window to the Wall at the other side, and to hang from any point of said bar,

10 substantially as described.

2. The combination in a the escape, of a ladder rod provided with saucer-shaped steps and means for supporting the rod upon a house, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in I 5 presence of two witnesses.

CATIIARINE GAPLIS.

Witnesses:

JOHN C. OLIVER, JOHN D. ECKERT.

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