AN APPARATUS, WHEREBY ANY PERSON, MALE OR FEMALE, MAY ESCAPE WITH THE GREATEST EASE AND SAFETY FROM A HOUSE OR OTHER BUILDING, AND PRESERVE HIS OR HER LIFE IN CASE OF ACCIDENTS BY FIRE
Year: 1783

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
MASERES, of. Rathbone Place, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Ninth day of August, in the twenty-third year of His reign,
did give and grant unto me, the said John Maseres, His especial licence that
I, the said John Maseres, during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might uses exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN APPARATUS, WHEREBY ANY
PERSON, MALE OR FEMALE, MAY ESCAPE WITH THE GREATEST EASE AND SAFETY FROM
A HOUSE OR OTHER BUILDING, AND PRESERVE HIS OR HER LIFE IN CASE OF ACCIDENTS
BY FIRE;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging
me, the said John Maseres, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular
description of the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within four calendar months after the date of the said recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KONW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Maseres, do hereby declare that my said apparatus, whereby any person,
male or female, may escape with the greatest ease and safety from a house or

page_text: JOHN URD.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighth day of December, in the
year above written, the aforesaid John Maseres came before our said Lord
the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and
all and every thing therein contained and specified, in the form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.
11

page_text: Prg: 1. 1.
a
-
which.
-
or more
a Link
The
Shong hope which must be of a Length equal to hiice the Heighth from which it is to be used To one end of which is fixed a large Icon King B near two Inches in Diameter through which a broad and shong Belt C is put
long enough to buckle round a Man's Grody - On this
On this king is fastened a Chain D fourteen Inches long at the bottom
through two horizontal Links two shops E.E. are put long enough to buckle round each thigh - F is a linke
through which a Strap is to be put long enough to go round the two Thighs together and is intended for the use of Women if they object to using the Straps E E. as Men use them - G is a small Windlass formed of a small Cylinder
of Wood a about two Inches long and about an Inch and an half or two Inches in Diameter (according to the shength or thickness of the Rope/ fixed between two Circular Checks of Iron b. 6. that spread about half an Inch beyond
the Edges
or Extremities of the Cylinder to keep the Rope in its place the upper parts of which gradually declining in Width and increasing in Thickness approach till they meet and form a Triangle the sides of which are to be equal and
about six Inches long and the Top is turned into a king or long Hook c. by which the whole Apparatus is suspended either on a bar fixed across the Frame of a Window or on a Hook fastened to any firm pent there of inside or outside at the
option of the Party using it - Round the Cylinder the hope is to be put two or three times or more according to the Weight to be supported unless the Cylinder is cut into Eight
flat sides in which case the hope need not be put over it
above twice as the Angular form will have as much effect as the coiling it a third time over a circular barrel would have. For the Cylinder is to be so fixed to the Cheets by Iron Pins that go through it as not to turn or move at
all - It is by its Want of Motion that the Machine acquires great part of its power arising from the obstruction occasioned by the Friction of the hope in passing round the Cylinder - When the hope is put round the Cylinder it is to
be drawn up till the Chain comes
nearly
close to it- parallel to the Cylinder and above it at the distance of about half an Inch is a little bar of Iron d fixed to the sides of the Iron frame which keeps the hope in its place
and prevents the Coils of the hope from crossing or riding on each other which would bind them and hinder the Machine from acting freely and regularly I is the Regulator consisting of a piece of Wood about six Inches long
one thick and one Inch and a quarter wide. It has two holes made in it one within an Inch of the end and the other at the Distance of an Inch and a half from this end hole. These Holes are large enough for the hope
to be put through them At the bottom of this piece of wood is a staple in which is a short shape to be fast ned to another short strap f. by means of a buckle in either of them and fixed to the Chain by
hope after it has been put round the Cylinder is to be put through the upper and then through the lower Hole so as to come out at the side it went in at - When thus Set on the Regulator is to be drawn along
the hope till it is brought even with the King B. and buckled to the Strap f. This part is called the Regulator because it serves to keep the Person in the Shaps suspended or to let him descend at pleasure at the rate he chuses to
The pressure of the hope on the Angles or sides of the Holes in the Regulator prevents the Rope from running through of itself but when that pressure is rumoved by pushing through the lower stole a part of the loose hope that
до
hangs below the Regulator the weight descends and draws with it the Regulator till it bears again upon the lower hole and then it stops from the obstruction it meets from the sides of the holes till it is let off again by pushing more of the
hope through the lower hole - Some persons thinking they don't descend fast enough by these repeated pushes and it being true that if the Machine is made stiff mnough to controul the Wright of a heave Man it will not work freely)
ough with
Eight and man of if is suited light weight of with draw of stself when loaded
huway Man
it Secondary peat or additional Regulator I is cuddal to the first Regulater which
Much
greater hange and fits it for almost every weight indiscriminately - This addition is a piece of Wood about five inches long and half an Inch thick fastened by Kringe to the bottom of the first Regulator
which the Rope comes in and
goes out at
This piece of Wood twins up and shuts upon the first Regulator and has a hole in it for the hope to go through which is to be half an Inch above the lower Hole when it shut.
upon the first Regulator. By this means it stops up the passage through the lower hole of the first Regulator when it is shut upon it and when it is drawn aside from the first-Regulator the passage is opened again and the
obstruction removed The ultimate power residing in the additional Regulator is that the Holes in the first Regulator being made much wider than before and so as to give
itself so soon as the additional Regulator is drawn aside and this free passage is to be increased or diminished or
an easy passage to the Rope It will un through of
quite prevented at the command of the person who is
becomes the real Regulator and which shuts of itself being drawn up by the Rope as it passes through it
going
the help of
by
this additional Regulator which now
Fig. 2
The Windlass G is vieived in front and it is in all respects the same Machine
Frig: 1 except that instead of the Cham and Shaps a Bag K about four Feet and an half deep and near two feet wide at the
Top is fastened by four Ropes of about two feet and an half in length to the Ring B. This Bag is kept spread by a circular Frame of Iron. A Segment of which Circle is cut off that the Bag may lie flat steady and
convenient for getting in The Regulators are to be fixed to the edge
are to be fixed to the edge of this Frame and is to be used just
as with the Straps - As in some cases it be easier to use the Bag than the Straps it is intended for
the use of Cripples Invalids or others
as
01
(.Y
occasion or inclination may require
as
it
may
a
down
on the side s