The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-06
INVENTS A FIRE
ESCAPE LIKE TAPE
Steel Band That Unwinds-User Reg
ulates Speed By Means of
Clutch on Apparatus

Judging by the records published in
the daily papers, the last year paid to
the fire king a greater tribute than ever
in human life" says a scientist who is
greatly interested in life saving de-
vices 1T appears also that we are
just as far off as ever from the ideal
period when there will be no fires be-
cause everything will be fireproof. So
that all we can do Is to seek means to
modify the loss of life when fire
catastrophes do occur.
incidentally we might do something
to modify fires at the outbreak; or
rather we might abstain from aggravat-
ing them by injudicious heroics. A lit
tie smoke is seen by a policeman on
the beat. Intent on saving lives he bat
ters i'm the street door, almost in
stantly Transforming a mere smolder
| into blazing furnace. His battering
| operation has constructed scientific
| flue warranted to carry the flames to
the top floor where the inhabitants have
sought safety! But our friend in blue
| precedes the flames, succeeds per-
haps in saving life, albeit some other
may be lost, and wins the award that
| impelled him-among other considera-
| tions, of course-to break his way into
| the house.
such unwise temerity would be dis
| couraged if people could find their own
way from top floors to the pavement.
| Various inventions have been recorded
during the last two decades, all of them
claiming to enable people to make such
a descent In moments of stress None
| has quite filled the bill, and some have
| been merely suggestions which never
seem to have found their way to the
public in practical form. Even sugges-
| tions serve purpose, however, when
they set people thinking on inventive
lines; and, therefore, we encourage
them, particularly in the direction of
fire escapes
'Our hope is that some reader may take
hold of the thread of an idea and convert
it into shape that will achieve the bless
ing of mankind and fortune to boot A
new device on which a foreigner is now
experimenting is based on the fact that
when a spider wishes to drop from its
web in tree or other elevation it spins
a thread to support it's descent, and this,
figurately speaking, is just what the in
ventor of the tape measure fire escape
proposes to do in descending from fire
swept building.
This remarkable escape consists of a
narrow band of steel tightly rolled upon
spool contained in a casing. In using
the device, the end of the tape is made
fast at the point from which the escape
is to be made A leather belt attached to
the spool casing is fastened round the
waist. Then the user can drop to the
ground, regulating the speed of the jour-
ney-controlled naturally by the speed at
which the tape unwinds-by means of a
clutch ON the apparatus.
The efficiency OF the thing has been
tested from a height of 200 feet, but If it
is good for that height it should be just
as good for greater heights with suitable
steel tapes modified to meet the probable
requirement of the possessor of the APP
pafatus. Compactness and indestructibil-
ity are the striking features of the tape
measure fire escape. They are essentials
in any such devices
Most of the apparatus available is con-
structed of thick ropes with wooden grips
at intervals, or cross bars. In the latter
form they are. of course, rope and wood
ladders. But they are cumbersome, too
numbering by far to drag about on ones
travels whele they might be sorely need
ed, and far too bulky to enable them to
remain in dainty bedchamber without
detracting from its appearance. Such con-
siderations weigh, and an artistic life
might be lost because the rope escape
had been ieiesated, as a matter of rds.e.
to the attic.
THE point is plain; inventors must
work along the lines of the tape measure
that way success lies