Year: 1888

page_text: 1, NUTTER BARKER, of Thackley, near Bradford, in the County of York, Jomer,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows
This invention relates to improvements in 'ladders and its object is to provide a
ready means of splicing or connecting two ladders together in such a manner that their
combined length may be readily altered or adjusted without resorting to the laborious
and unsatisfactory method of splicing them with ropes commonly employed.
This invention consists of the arrangement and application of the ladder attachments
hereinafter described forming a clasp on one ladder and clutches on the other and
adapted to enable two ladders to readily slide or be adjusted longitudinally upon each
other, but which when the ladders are in use firmly retain them in their relative
position.
For this purpose one of the ladders is preferably sufficiently wide to allow the other
ladder to lie between its sides and rest upon the staves or spokes but the sides of one
ladder may be arranged to slide upon the sides of the other, in either case the staves
or spokes are the same pitch. At the top of the wider ladder a projecting metal strap
is rigidly secured to the sides and adapted to allow the other ladder to slide between
it and the staves of the ladder to which it is secured. A pendant claw is pivoted to
the bottom of each side of the upper ladder immediately beneath the lowest stave
adapted to project behind so as to engage a stave of the wider ladder according to
the length of ladder required. The said pendant claws are provided with projections
which engage the front of the ladder sides and hold the said claws in position when
engaging a stave of the ladder beneath.
The form and pivot of the said claws is so arranged that the weight of the upper
ladder the top end of which passes beneath the above mentioned clasp, tends to press
the projections on each claw against the side of the ladder and so firmly hold them in
position.
It will be seen that these attachments firmly hold the two ladders in their
relative position and that such position may be altered to adjust the length of the

page_text: combined ladders by simply raising the upper ladder to disengage the said claws
and moving the bottom of the upper ladder slightly away from the lower ladder
to prevent the claws catching the staves, then sliding the upper ladder longi-
tudinally upon the lower one until the required length is reached."
Dated this 14th day of April 1888
DRACUP & NOWELL,
Bradford, Agents.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Ladders.
I, NUTTER BARKER, of Thackley, near Bradford, in the County of York, Joiner,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same.
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
at
This invention relates to improvements in ladders, and its object is to provide
ready means of splicing or connecting two ladders together in such a manner that
their combined length may be readily altered or adjusted without resorting to the
laborious method of splicing them with ropes commonly employed.
The said improvements consist in the application and arrangement of the ladder
attachments hereinafter described forming a clasp on one ladder and cluiches on the
other and adapted to splice or connect said ladders together in such a manner that
they readily slide, or may be adjusted longitudinally upon each other but when in use
are firmly retained in their relative position.
In order to describe my improvements in detail reference is to be had to the
accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification in which similar letters of
reference indicate corresponding. parts in each of the figures.
Figure 1, is an elevation of two ladders spliced in accordance with my invention.
Figure 2, is a side view of the same.
Figure 3, is a similar view illustrating the method of adjusting the combined lengths
of the ladders.
Figure 4, is a transverse section through the line ab figure 1.
Figure 5, is a longitudinal section of a portion of the ladders..
Figures 6 and 7 are views on a larger scale of details hereinafter referred to.
The ladder A is preferably sufficiently wide to allow the ladder B to lie between its
sides C, and rest upon the staves or spokes D, but B may be made the same width
as A and arranged to rest upon and slide along its sides C in, either case the pitch of
the staves D is the same in both ladders.

page_text: A metal strap J is rigidly secured to the top of the sides C of the ladder A and
adapted to allow B to slide between it and the staves D. A pendant claw E is
pivoted by the pins G to the bottom of each of the sides F of the ladder B and such
claws are provided with jaws H projecting behind and adapted to engage a stave D.
The claws are also provided with projections L which engage the front of the sided F
and limit the motion of said claws upon their pivots. The form of said claws together
with the relative position of their pivots G and jaws H is so arranged that the weight
of the ladder B passing beneath the strap J tends to press the projections L against F
and so firmly hold them in position. Figures 6 and 7 are respectively a front and
side view of one of the said pendant claws.
It will be readily be seen that the attachments E and J firmly hold the two.
ladders in their relative position when in use, and that their combined length may be
reduced by raising the ladder B to disengage the claws E from the staves and moving
the bottom of B slightly away from A, as represented in Figure 3, to prevent such
claws catching, when sliding B longitudinally upon A until the required length is
reached. The ladders are lengthened by simply sliding B along A, the curved form
of the claw E enabling them to ride easily over the staves D.
It is obvious that more than two sections may be connected together in this
manner.
An inclined guard N is fixed at the top of the sides F to enable them to more easily
slide over slight obstructions when the ladder is being adjusted.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare what I
claim is:
The combination with a ladder in two or more sections of the claws E and
strap or clasp J substantially as herein shown and described and for the purpose
specified.
Dated this 15th day of
1000