Abstract:
A fire escape having a roller chain carried in a slotted vertically extending tube and driven to cause controlled downwardly movement in the tube. The roller chain carries ears which support molded plastic balls connected through the tube&#39;s slot to harnesses for escaping persons. The controlled movement of the chain allows even an unconscious person to be lowered from the top of a building safely to the ground.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates generally to emergency escape apparatus for a building and more particularly to a motorized fire escape for high rise buildings. 
     In the past, there have been many deaths due to a lack of simple, effective fire escape system from tall high rise buildings such as hotels and modern apartment buildings. In case of fire, the occupants of these buildings are told to try to stay in their rooms or try to take the stairways down to the ground because while access to the roof might be easy there are no convenient ways of bringing people down from a highrise roof. 
     Various expedients have been used to rescue people from burning buildings. For the lower buildings, a safety net is sufficient or a ladder from a fire truck. However, for very tall buildings, the only rescue system available has been the limited carrying capability helicopters which in many instances were totally useless due to adverse weather conditions. 
     Another form of fire escape apparatus has used a rope with a means for allowing the person to brake himself while going down the rope. The disadvantage of this system is that there is no way for a person who is unconscious due to smoke inhalation to be lowered and some knowledge of mountaineering is required. Another disadvantage of this system is that once an occupant has reached the ground there is no way for returning the braking mechanism back to the roof for re-use. 
     SUMMARY OF INVENTION 
     The present invention provides fire escape apparatus which may even be used by an unconscious person. 
     The present invention further provides a system which may be easily expanded for multi-story buildings with no limitation as to the maximum height of the building. 
     The present invention further provides an inexpensive motorized fire escape. 
     The present invention further provides mechanism by which the operative part of the fire escape apparatus may be returned to the roof of the multi-purpose building for re-use. 
     Other advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from a review of the following drawings and the description of the preferred embodiments. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is the side view of the present invention taken along the line 1--1 of FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 2 is a top view of the present invention; 
     FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the present invention taken along line 3--3 of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view of the present invention taken along line 4--4 of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of an alternate embodiment of the present invention taken along the line 5--5 of FIG. 6; 
     FIG. 6 is a front view of the alternate embodiment of the present invention; 
     FIG. 7 is a top view of a portion of the alternate embodiment; and 
     FIG. 8 is a side view of an operative portion of the alternate embodiment. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring now to FIG. 1, therein is shown a cross-sectional view of the emergency escape apparatus 10 of the present invention. The building structure 12 has secured to it a plurality of support brackets 14. 
     The support brackets 14 are generally welded to a hollow member or tube 16. The tube 16 is open at both ends and is generally one story long for convenience although either shorter or longer lengths are possible. On the side of the tube away from the building there is provided a split 18 which runs the entire length of the tube 16. Disposed within the tube 16 is a plastic self-lubricated bushing, roller chain 20. As would be evident to those skilled in the art a plastic chain capable of supporting the necessary loads or a wire rope would be equally usable. 
     The chain 20 has secured thereon equi-distantly spaced, a plurality of ears 22 which are used to engage a member which will be described later. The chain 20 is driven by upper and lower sprockets 24 and 26, respectively, which may either be secured to the tube 16 or to the support brackets 14 for rotation therein. At the bottom portion of the tube 16, the open end is joined at joint 28 to another tube 16. At ground level for the building 12, the bottom-most tube 16 will be spaced a short distance above the ground. 
     At the top end of the tube 16, the open end is connected to an arcuate tube 30 at a joint 32. As would be evident to those skilled in the art, the joint 32 may be achieved merely by lining up the tubes, by welding, or by bolting a collar over the nonsplit portion. 
     The ears 22 extend into the split on tube 16. The ears 22 use the split as a guide. 
     The arcuate tube 30 is similar to the tube 16 in having a split 34 provided in the building distal wall. The arcuate tube 30 has disposed therein a chain 36 having ears 22 secured thereto. 
     The chain 36 is driven by a pair of sprockets 38 and 40. The sprocket 40 is driven by another sprocket (not shown in FIG. 1) which is connected to a sprocket 42 by a drive chain 44. The sprocket 42 is driven by a gear reducer equipped motor 46 which is secured to the building 12. A support bracket 48 supports the portion of the arcuate tube 30 which extends over building 12. 
     The drive from the motor 46 is transferred via the drive chain 44 to the chain 36 which in turn drives a sprocket arrangement on which an intermediate drive chain 50 is disposed. This intermediate drive chain 50 further drives the sprocket 24 and the chain 20. Similarly, between stories of the building 12 are other intermediate drive chains 50 which drive the other chains for each story. As would be evident, while at one point the motor 46 will be driving, at other points the drive will be acting via the speed reducer as an electronic brake while lowering many occupants. 
     Also shown in FIG. 1 is the emergency escape apparatus in use with an occupant 52 being supported by a harness 54 which is connected by a wire 56 to a plastic ball 58 disposed within the tube 16. Referring now to FIG. 2, therein is shown a top view of the arcuate tube 30. The tube 30 is generally Y-shaped with a branch 60 welded thereon. The split 34 extends down this branch. FIG. 1 is the section taken along the line 1--1 of this figure. 
     Referring now to FIG. 3, therein is shown a cross section of FIG. 1 taken along the line 3--3. FIG. 3 shows the ear 22 as a rectangular member. It should be noted that the ear 22 only takes up a portion of the tube since the ball 58 is being utilized as the member engaging with the ear 22. If a cylindrical member were to replace the ball 58, the tube 30 and the tube 16 could be made rectangular to match the cross section of such an engageable means. 
     Because the chain 36 must clear safety walls which are sometimes on the edge of building roofs, it is desirable that the chain conform to the arc of the underside of the tube 30. In order to accomplish this, each of the links of the chain 36 are provided with a pair of wings 62 which engage a pair of flanges 64 on the underside of the arcuate tube 30. 
     Referring now to FIG. 4, therein is shown a cross sectional view of one of the bracket areas showing the bracket 14 which may be angle irons bolted to the side of the building 12. The sprocket 24 is secured to a shaft 66 which is mounted in a pair of bearings 68 and 70 which are respectively secured to the support brackets 14 by bearing plates 72 and 74. Outwardly of the bearings 68 and 70 is an intermediate sprocket 76 to which the intermediate chains 50 are connected. 
     As would be evident to those skilled in the art, from the particular drive arrangement shown it is evident that the motor 46 may be located either at the top or bottom of the building. In the preferred embodiment the motor 46 is placed at the top of the building 12 where it will not be easily accessible to vandals and its drive capabilities are the most important. To avoid problems with power failure to the building, in the preferred embodiment, the power lines (not shown) to the motor 46 run from ground level and are secured to the outside of the tubes. 
     In operation during an emergency, the occupants of the building will be advised to escape either upwards or downwards. At the roof, an occupant 52 will be placed in a harness 54. The ball 58 will be inserted in the split 34 of the branch 60 to be moved into engagement with one of the ears 22 on the chain 36. Generally, the ears on the chain 36 are closer together than on the chain 20 and the drive sprockets slightly smaller to more slowly pick up the occupant 52. The branch 60 permits cuing of people to use the emergency escape apparatus 10. 
     When a ball 58 reaches the straight portion of arcuate tube 30 it will be picked up to lift the occupant 52 over any wall on the building 12. Once past the wall, the occupant 52 will drop a short distance of about 3 feet under the influence of gravity to an ear 22 on the chain 20 which is timed to be at the highest position for engagement when the ball 58 disengages from the ear 22 on the chain 36. 
     Once the occupant 52 is being supported by an ear 22 on the chain 20, the motor 46 becomes an electric brake and slowly lowers the occupant from one tube 16 to the other tube 16 until the occupant is brought down to the ground. At the bottom the ball drops out at the open end of the tube and the occupant 52 may either walk or be carried away. 
     As would be evident, a large number of people may be using the emergency escape apparatus 10 at any one time to escape from burning building. 
     Returning now to FIG. 5, therein is shown an alternate embodiment of the present invention which includes tubes for returning the ball 58 in the harness 54 back to the roof of the building 12 so as to allow re-use thereof. Generally, the return tubes parallel the lowering tubes and are positioned closer to the building 12 so as to make use of the upward movement of the chain. As shown in FIG. 5, upper and lower tubes 16 are paralleled by return tubes designated by the numeral 80. The return tubes 80 may be supported by the support brackets 14 which in this embodiment support the double sprockets 82 and 86 which may best be seen by reference to FIG. 6. Disposed between the returned tubes 80 is a holder designated by the numeral 88 which may best be seen by reference to FIG. 7. Generally, the holder 88 will be made from elastomer material which is deformable to allow ears 90 on the interior portion of the holder 88 to deform to let an object pass through the center of said holder. 
     As seen in FIG. 5, the double sprockets 82 and 86 are connected by an intermediate drive chain 92 which carries on it a plurality of ears 94 which are equi-distantly spaced on the intermediate drive chain 92. 
     Referring now to FIG. 8 therein is shown a ball 58 connected by a wire 56 to a harness 54. Connected to the wire 56 between the ball 58 and the harness 54 is a ball-shaped container 96 which is hinged at the connection to the wire 56 at the hinge 98. The two halves of the ball-shaped container are oversized to allow the ball 58 and the harness 54 and wire 56 to be rolled up and contained by the container 96 which will be held closed by a latch 100 integrally molded therein. When in its closed condition, the container 96 is of a ball-shaped configuration which fits within the inside diameter of the return tube 80. 
     In operation, an occupant 52 will be lowered by means of the tube 16 down to the ground at which point the occupant 52 will remove the harness 54 and roll the ball 58, the wire 56 and the harness 54 into configuration fit within the ball-shaped container 96. The two halves of the container 96 will then be closed and held in place by the latch 100. 
     The container 96 will then be inserted in the bottom of return tube 80 where, as the emergency escape apparatus continues to operate, an ear 22 will engage the container 96 and move it upwardly in the return tube 80. The container 96 will continue to be urged upwardly by the ear 22 until it is pushed past the holder 88 by deforming the ears 90. Once the container 96 is past the holder 88, the ears 90 will spring back in place and retain the container 96 until an ear 94 on the intermediate drive chain 92 can engage the container 96 and continue to move it upward into engagement with another holder 88 which will again hold the ball until another ear 22 on the higher chain 20 can engage the container 96 and carry it to the roof of the building structure 12 where it can be removed. The container 96 will be opened to allow the ball 58 to be inserted back in cue and to be reused again. 
     As would be evident to those skilled in the art, it would be possible to use the double sprocket arranged shown in FIG. 5 in the arrangement shown in FIG. 1. However, this would mean that the precise spacing between the ears would become more critical, and the emergency escape apparatus would have to be tailored to each building taking into account the differences in distance between the various floors at all levels of the building. It should also be noted that the exact ear arrangement used with the double sprocket arrangement shown in FIG. 5 will require precise location in order to prevent jamming of the ball-shaped containers 96 and the ball 58 in their various movements in the emergency escape apparatus 10. 
     As many alternate embodiments would be evident to those skilled in the art from the foregoing description, the description should be construed in an illustrative and not a limiting sense.