CERTAIN NEW AND IMPROVED MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR SAVING OF LIVES AND PROPERTY FROM FIRE, WHICH I DENOMINATE SALVATOR
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HERMAN
KESSELS, of Saint Mary Axe, in the City of London, Major in the Belgian
Army, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Seventh day of June, in the first year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Herman
Kessels, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said Herman Kessels, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Herman Kessels, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term of years therein expressed, should. and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN NEW AND IMPROVED
MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR SAVING OF LIVES AND PROPERTY FROM FIRE, WHICH I
DENOMINATE SALVATOR;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a. proviso:
that I, the said Herman Kessels, shall cause a particular description of.
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in.
part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto.
had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Herman Kessels, do hereby declare that the nature of my Invention, and
the manner of carrying out the same, are fully described and ascertained. in
ánd by the following description thereof, reference being had to the Drawing

page_text: hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon (that is
to say):-
My Invention relates to a machine or apparatus, by the application of
which to the upper stories of houses which may be on fire, persons and
properties may be saved with great facility; the machinery is so arranged or
combined, that it can be quickly transported from one place to another, and
elevated or applied by the aid of a very few persons. The machine consists of
a strongly framed ladder, which is mounted on a fulcrum as a lever, on
elevated standards or uprights, which are applied to a truck or carriage with
wheels, and is capable of turning in any direction; the surface of the ladder
is suitably formed for persons ascending and descending when the ladder is
elevated, and further, there is a track down and up which boxes or such
like receivers can be readily Towered and raised by means of ropes and a
windlass for that purpose; the ordinary position of the ladder when out of use
or being transported from one place to another is the horizontal position, and
it can be readily raised or lowered by means of rope or cord, which taking
one or two turns around a windlass, is made fast to the ladder near the two
ends; hence on causing the windlass to revolve, one end of the ladder will
ascend from the horizontal position, and the other end will descend, and this
may be done to any degree required, in order to obtain the requisite elevation
of the upper end of the ladder, and there are props or diagonal stays which
assist in sustaining the ladder when raised, and on either side of the ladder
there are hand rails consisting of standards and
ropes, by which
persons ascending and descending may do so with greater safety and con-
venience, and at the upper end of the ladder there are hooks moving on axes,
which can be raised in order to hold on a parapit, the sil of a window, or other
place, and the upper part of a ladder also carries a basket made of any suitable
material, the front part of which folds down and forms a bridge or platform by
which a person may easily pass from a window to the ladder, or from the ladder
to the window.
The Drawing shows the various parts and their modes of combination by
which a workman will readily be able to construct a machine or apparatus
according to the principle herein described, care being observed in the con-
struction to obtain strength with lightness; and it will only be necessary
further shortly to point out the parts by their letters of reference as marked in
the Drawing. A is an elevation of the machine; B is the ladder, with part
of its surface removed for the purpose of showing the nature of the framing;
C. represents a transverse section of the machine, this section being taken at
the dotted line D, E, of the previous Figure; F is the plan of the carriage or

page_text: truck upon which the machine or apparatus is placed, and by which it
can be readily transported from one place to another either by men or
by horses; G shows the position of the ladder when below the horizontal
line; H shows the position of the ladder in an elevated state; J, by
dotted lines, a still higher elevation to which the ladder is capable of
being raised, and these varied positions are readily obtained to the ladder
owing to its being mounted on a fulcrum or axis as a lever, and worked by-a
rope and windlass as above explained; L is the basket; M is the bridge or
platform joined to the basket L, a plan of which bridge is seen at N, in the
horizontal Figure B; O is the plan of the basket; P is the box to carry
the necessary implements; Q, Q, are boxes by which goods or people may be
lowered by means of a cord and windlass, as above explained; R, R, are the
diagonal props; S shows the position of the basket whilst being transported
from one place to another.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I lay no claim to any
of the parts separately, and their nature and arrangement may in some degree
be varied without departing from the character of my Invention; but what
I claim is the mode of combining what I have called the ladder on an axis
or fulcrum, and suitable standards or uprights on a carriage or truck, as above
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Herman Kessels, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of December, One thousand eight
AND
ecember, in
the year of our Lord 1838, the aforesaid Herman Kessels, Esq, came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Seventh day of December. in the year of our Lord One.