Climbing apparatus

Climbing apparatus includes a pole which may be positioned vertically or inclined, an element axially slidably, but non-rotatably, mounted on the pole for supporting the feet of a climber and a second element non-rotatably but axially slidably mounted on the pole for supporting the hands of a climber. Both the hand and foot supporting elements include selectively actuable brake shoes engageable with the pole. The non-rotatable mountings of both elements on the pole permit the pole to be positioned either vertically or inclined from the vertical as desired. A second embodiment of the invention provides a seat element similarly non-rotatably but axially slidably mounted on the pole above the foot supporting element and connected thereto by resilient tension means for causing the foot supporting element to follow the seat element upwardly during ascent, the seat element being provided with a brake shoe disengaged from the pole when the seat is unoccupied and engageable with the pole responsive to occupation of the seat.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The invention relates to climbing apparatus of the type having separate 
hand or seat and foot supporting elements slidably mounted in axially 
spaced relation on a pole or similar member. 
2. The Prior Art 
The prior art discloses a number of devices exemplified in Von Mengden U.S. 
Pat. Nos. 213,715, Borneman 810,254, Westad 983,335, O'Keefe 3,724,593 and 
Fonte 4,137,995 constructed for climbing vertical or substantially 
vertical generally cylindrical objects, such as telephone or telegraph 
poles, ropes and the like. One feature generic to all of these disclosures 
in the prior art is that the element climbed, whether it be a telegraph 
pole, as in the patent to Von Mengden, a special pole, as in the patent to 
Borneman, ropes, as in the Westad and O'Keefe patents, or a telephone 
pole, as in the Fonte patent, must be substantially vertical. In the 
interest of stability, however, a pole used in the manner of a ladder is 
preferably inclined. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to climbing apparatus having movable hand 
engaged elements on a seat and foot supporting element slidably but 
non-rotatably mounted on a pole for movement axially thereof, capable of 
use in the manner of a conventional ladder. 
More particularly, the foot supporting and hand engaged elements and seat 
have collars non-rotatably mounted on the pole and respectively have a 
pair of hand engaged or foot supporting arms mounting brake shoes so that 
when vertical loads are applied to the arms, the brake shoes engage the 
pole and prevent movement of the respective elements axially of the pole. 
The invention utilizes hand engaged and foot supporting elements comprising 
collars non-rotatably but axially slidably mounted on the pole, a pair of 
bellcranks pivotally secured to each collar on diametrally opposite sides 
of the collar and each having a transverse arm and an arm parallel to the 
pole, and brake shoes secured to arms of the bellcranks parallel to the 
axis of the pole and brakingly engageable with the pole when pressure is 
applied to the substantially horizontal foot supporting or hand engaged 
arms of the bellcranks. 
Non-rotatable mounting of the collars on the pole permits the pole to be 
used in an inclined as well as a substantially vertical position by 
preventing a climber from swinging around to the underside of an inclined 
pole. 
The non-rotatable mounting is achieved by utilizing a non-circular cross 
section pole and collars of mating cross section.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
The numeral 1 denotes a pole which may be of extruded aluminum construction 
and of non-circular cross section having a generally circular body 3 and a 
radial rib 5 elongated parallel to the axis of the pole. 
A hand supporting element comprises a collar 7 having an internal surface 
mateable with the pole and a pair of radial wings 9 on a common diameter 
substantially at right angles to the diameter intersecting the radial rib 
5 of the pole. A pair of hand supporting members in the form of bellcranks 
having slightly upwardly curved transverse arms 11 with thickened ends 12 
and much shorter arms 13 extending downwardly generally parallel to the 
axis of pole 1 are fulcrummed at the intersections of arms 11 and 13 on 
wings 9 by pins 15. The upward curvature of hand supporting arms 11 and 
the thickened outer end portions 12 oppose any tendencies of the hands to 
slip off hand supporting arms 11. For maintaining the hand supporting 
element at any desired position on pole 1, brake shoes 17, having concave 
surfaces engageable with opposite sides of pole 1, are pivoted at 19 to 
the lower portions of axial arms 13 of the bellcranks so that when 
downward pressure is applied to transverse arms 11, the hand supporting 
element will be held against vertical movement on pole 1 and by lifting up 
on transverse arms 11 brake shoes 17 can be disengaged from engagement 
with pole 1, permitting free upward or downward movement of the hand 
supporting element on the pole. 
For supporting the feet of a user of the apparatus, a foot supporting 
element comprises a second collar 21, the internal surface of which 
corresponds to the external surface of pole 1, is non-rotatably and 
axially slidably mounted on pole 1 and is formed with a pair of bifurcated 
wings 23 to which are pivoted, by pins 25, bellcranks 27. Each bellcrank 
27 has a transverse arm 29 and an arm 31 extending downwardly generally 
parallel to the axis of pole 1. For maintaining the foot supporting 
element at any desired position on pole 1, brake shoes 33 are pivoted at 
35 to the lower end portions of axial arms 31 so that when the feet of the 
climber press downwardly on arms 29, brake shoes 33 will frictionally 
engage pole 1 and prevent movement of the foot supporting element axially 
of the pole. Each of the transverse arms 29 has a rebent outer end portion 
37 adapted to overlie the shoe of a user of the apparatus to enable him to 
release the brake by lifting his feet, thereby causing the axial arms of 
the bellcranks to swing away from the pole and disengage brake shoes 33 
from the pole to the position shown in broken lines in FIG. 10, and 
thereafter enabling him to raise the foot supporting element by pulling 
upwardly thereon with his feet. The inner ends of transverse arms 29 may 
be tapered slightly upwardly at 38 to make it possible for the user to 
release brake shoes 33 from engagement with the poles if he wishes to 
effect a rapid descent. For limiting the upward pivoting of the outer ends 
of the bellcranks 29-31 about pivot pins 25, the inner vertical surface of 
each of the axial legs 31 is cut away at 40 for engagement with a limit 
pin 42 mounted in the associated bifurcated wings 23. 
For non-rotatably positioning the pole against the side of a building or 
the like, at its upper end a cross bar 39 is formed with a collar 41 
slidably mounted on the pole for positioning axially thereof as desired 
and is secured in the desired position thereon by a suitable set screw 43. 
To space the pole a suitable distance from the wall, the end portions 45 
of cross bar 43 are extended equal distances from the cross bar with their 
terminals 47 adapted to engage the building or wall structure. 
FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate different pole and collar cross sections 1A and 
21A and 1B and 21B, respectively, the pole 1A and collar of FIG. 4 being 
of polygonal, e.g., square, cross section and the pole 1B of FIG. 5 being 
of partially circular cross section with an axial groove 5B mating with a 
boss 22 on the internal surface of collar 1B. It will be seen that these 
and numerous other non-circular cross sections may be used to provide the 
desired axial mobility and at the same time make the collars non-rotatable 
on the poles. 
Operation of the device is as follows: Preferably the pole is positioned as 
shown in FIG. 1, with the foot supporting element 21-37 at the bottom of 
the pole and the hand supporting element 7-19 positioned above it. The 
climber positions his feet on the end portions of foot supporting 
transverse arms 29 beneath the rebent end portions 37 thereof and grasps 
hand supporting arms 11, raising the latter to his full height with his 
arms extended, at which point he swings the hand supporting arms 11 to the 
braking position so as to lock the hand supporting element on the pole. 
Continuing to grasp the hand supporting arms 11, he hunches his body, 
thereby pulling up on the foot supporting element through the engagement 
of his shoes with rebent end portions 37 of foot supporting transverse 
arms 29 until he brings this up to a suitable height, at which time he 
presses downwardly on the end portions of foot supporting arms 29 without 
lowering the same so as to cause brake shoes 33 to engage the pole and 
thereby lock the foot supporting element against movement axially of the 
pole. If he wishes to ascend further with his feet in this position, he 
stretches his body, releasing the grip of the hand engaged element brake 
shoes 17 on the pole to free the hand engaged element and push the same 
upwardly along the pole to his full height. This procedure can be repeated 
until he reaches the top of the pole or any desired intermediate position 
on the pole. Descent of the pole can be accomplished gradually by a 
reversal of the ascending operation or rapidly by lifting up on the hand 
engaged arms 11 and simultaneously swinging the foot supporting arms 
upwardly about their fulcrums 25 by pressing on inner end 38 of arms 29 to 
release the brake shoes 17 and 33 from frictional engagement with the pole 
and a fast descent can be made. 
In the second embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIGS. 12-16, the 
hand support structure 7-17 is eliminated and replaced by a seat element 
comprising a collar member having vertically spaced collars 53 and 55 
slidably mounted on pole 1 and connected by tie members 57. Pole 1 is of 
some non-circular cross section and for exemplary purposes, is shown of 
the same section as that illustrated in FIG. 3 and collars 53 and 55 
having a mating internal shape, although it will be understood that the 
pole may be of square section as shown in FIG. 4 or of the same cross 
section as shown in FIG. 5. A tension coil spring 59 is hooked at its 
upper and lower ends to washers 60 which have ears 62 pinned at 64 
respectively to seat element bottom collar 55 to foot support element 
collar 21 for purposes which will hereinafter be described. 
A seat 61 of bicycle type has clevis brackets 63 depending from its bottom 
and a nearly horizontal arm 65 of a bellcrank is pivoted at 67 to clevis 
brackets 63 on an axes transverse of the seat. The bellcrank is fulcrumed 
at 69 to a pair of clevis brackets 71 projecting forwardly from top seat 
support collar 53 and the other nearly vertical arm 73 of the bellcrank is 
bifurcated at its lower end at 75 to form a clevis in which is pivotally 
received at 77 a rib 79 on a brake shoe member 81 which is frictionally 
engageable with pole 1 for braking vertical sliding movements of the seat 
structure thereon. A tension coil spring 83 secured at one end to collar 
53 and at its other end to the top of bellcrank arm 65 biases the 
bellcrank upwardly and away from pole 1 when the seat is unoccupied so as 
to maintain brake shoe 81 out of frictional braking engagement with pole 
1. For manually raising the seat during operation of the apparatus, hook 
85 (which may be used to support the bails of paint cans and the like) is 
formed with an elongated shank 87 projecting horizontally rearwardly from 
top collar 53. 
The foot supporting element is the same as that of the first embodiment of 
FIGS. 1-11 except that on the bellcrank horizontal arms 29a, the rebent 
end portions 37 are omitted. 
An additional feature of the second embodiment is the provision, at the 
base of the pole, of a safety cushioning spring 89 seated against a bottom 
washer 90 engaging the base 92 of the pole and bearing upwardly against a 
top washer 94. 
Operation of the modified form of the invention is as follows: The climber 
supports his feet on the foot support arms 29a and grasps hook shank 87, 
raising the seat which is beneath him to the highest level which his body 
will permit with his legs extended. Still grasping hook shank 87, he sits 
on the seat causing bellcrank 65, 73 to pivot counterclockwise about it 
fulcrum 69 until brake shoe 81 is placed in tight braking engagement with 
pole 1 so that the seat cannot slide downwardly on the pole. He then bends 
his knees to a normal seated position to raise his feet away from 
engagement with foot support arms 29a and thereby release the foot support 
element brakes 33. This permits the tension of spring 59 to pull the foot 
supporting element 29a upwardly until arms 29a come into engagement with 
his feet, after which he presses down with his feet on foot support arms 
29, placing them in braking relation with the pole, after which he stands 
on them and again grasps hook shank 87 to raise seat 61 as far as his body 
will permit it to be raised, sits on seat 61 causing brake shoes 81 to 
reengage pole 1, and lifts his feet up to a bent knee position, thereby 
permitting spring 59 to raise foot support arms 29 after which he presses 
downwardly with his feet on foot support arms 29 to brake them at the new 
level. This sequence may be repeated as many times as needed to move the 
climber to any desired height on the pole. Hook 85 can be used during the 
climb and when the climber reaches his desired height to support paint 
buckets, cans and the like for use from the seat. 
The details of the construction may be varied substantially without 
departing from the spirit of the invention and the exclusive use of such 
modifications as come within the scope of the claims is contemplated.