A NEW OR IMPROVED LIFE SAVING APPARATUS FOR USE IN CASES OF DANGER BY FIRE
Year: 1884

page_text: PROVISIONAL
SPECIFICATION.
I, LORENTZ ALBERT GROTH K.G.V. Civil Engineer and Managing Director of
the Universal Inventors and Patentees Financial Company Limited, 30, Finsbury
Pavement, London, E.C. do hereby declare the nature of said invention for
"A NEW OR IMPROVED LIFE SAVING APPARATUS FOR USE IN CASES OF DANGER
BY FIRE," to be as follows:-
The notorious and considerable deficiences of apparatuses at present in use for the
saving of life in danger by fire have proved the desirability of an apparatus which
will be free from the evils heretofore complained of.
The saving apparatuses hitherto used are those known as the Escape-ladder
Spring-cloth and the Escape-hose.
Setting aside the fact that the first of these three viz, the Escape-ladder is an
expensive article, it has the great drawback of being difficult to handle and further
that several precious minutes must elapse before it can be brought into proper
position and even when this has been done, the saving of life is retarded on a count
of the firemen having to go up and down the ladder in order to save each individual
person, and this necessarily exhausts the strength of the fireman.
Further, if the Escape-ladder is raised against one part of the burning building it
is impossible to move it at any desired moment from window to window, and the
person in danger of the flames has no option but to jump down, as was the case at
the late conflagration of the Velvet Manufactory at Berlin.
That the spring-cloth does not fulfil all expectations is well known since the
burning down of the Ring Theatre at Vienna, and the great fire at Milwaukee has
fully demonstrated, one great disadvantage being that it requires many hands
and a great number of firemen to hold it, and further, a leap even from the first
floor may cause great injury to the body and that in the case of a leap from the
third and fourth floors a fracture of the limbs may easily occur, and practice has
proved that even stout hearted men have hesitated to leap down into the spring-
cloth, and that it has required much persuasion & consequently loss of time to
induce females to take the leap.
The delay of a second's time of persons in the front row, can cause the death of
those further back, and that is a fact well known; but even granted that those in
D

page_text: danger are courageous enough to take the leap at once, (which the occurrences at
the Vienna Ring Theatre and at Milwaukee entirely disprove) yet the saving of life
must any how proceed slowly as the next person must wait until the first has been
lifted out of the spring cloth.
-
The extreme impracticability of Escape hoses need not be specially mentioned
here, but the fact remains that saving of life by means of Escape hoses, is seldom
effected without injury to the head, and that it takes scarcely any less time to
manipulate than the spring cloth, for before a second person can be let down the
first must be taken out of the hose.
The above mentioned deficiences are all obviated by means of the present
invention.
The whole operation requires but a few seconds, the manipulation is very simple
and the saving of life is effected without the least bodily injury, and incomparably
quicker than by means of any other Fire escape or other saving apparatus.
The present apparatus consists, first, in an iron hook having two back projections
or legs in which works a screw spindle. A third projection or leg of the hook is
so constructed as to be made shorter or longer and adjusted to the wall of the
building by means of a part of the leg being moveable in a suitable hinge joint.
Another construction of the hook is as follows, viz:
The two back legs or projections form a hollow rectangular case, in which the
parts provided with the screw spindles are so fixed as to slide backwards and
forwards, and secured in proper position by a suitable bolt, the third leg or
projection in this construction of the hook being always of one length. This latter
construction of the hook offers the advantage that it can be fitted to the thickness
of the wall far more quickly and precisely.
Both of the aforementioned kinds of hooks with their spindles can be fastened
to the wall.
Another hook which is built into the masonry above the highest floor of the
building can also be used and in such a case the said hook would be very useful to
trice up scaffolding for painting or plastering.
After the proper securing of the hook a pulley block is hung on to it having a
suitable rope in which are a number of thimbles warped at a distance from each
other of about one half or a whole meter, and into these thimbles the person to be
saved bangs the carabine swivel of a suitable belt.
These belts in adequate number for any immergency would accompany
apparatus described and be furnished by the firemen in attendance.
The operation of the apparatus is as follows:
the
The persons in question suspend themselves by means of the belt and carabine
swivel on to the rope in the iniddle of the window the hoisting up of the rope
being performed by one of the fire brigade; and one great and peculiar advantage
of this apparatus is that the operation can go on from all floors of the building at
the same time, & that the said operation is so exceedingly simple that any
uninitiated person can be instrumental in the saving of life from danger by fire by
means of the said invention.
Dated this third day of January 1884

page_text: I, LORENTZ ALBERT GROTH, K.G.V. Civil Engineer and Managing Director of the
Universal Inventor and Patentees, Financial Company Limited, 30, Finsbury
Pavement, London E.C. in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature
of my invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED LIFE SAVING APPARATUS FOR USE IN
CASES OF DANGER BY FIRE" & in what manner the same is to be performed to
be particularly described.& ascertained in and by the following statement :-
The notorious & considerable deficiences of apparatuses at present in use for the
saving of life in danger by fire have proved the desirability of an apparatus which
will be free from the evils heretofore complained of.
The saving apparatuses hitherto used are those known as the Escape-ladder
Spring-Cloth, and the Escape-hose.
Setting aside the fact that the first of these three, viz: the Escape-ladder is an
expensive article, it has the great drawback of being difficult to handle and further
that several precious minutes must elapse before it can be brought into proper
position and even when this has been done, the saving of life is retarded on account
of the firemen having to go up and down the ladder in order to save each individual
person, and this necessarily exhausts the strength of the firemen; further if the
Escape-ladder is raised against one part of the burning building it is impossible to
move it at any desired moment from window to window and the person in danger
of the flames has no option but to jump down, as was the case at the late
conflagration of the Velvet Manufactory at Berlin.
That the Spring-cloth does not fulfil all expectations is well known since the
burning down of the Ring Theatre at Vienna, and the great fire at Milwaukee has
fully demonstrated, one great disadvantage being that it requires many hands and a
great number of firemen to hold it, and further a leap even from the first floor may
cause great injury to the body and that in the case of a leap from the third and fourth
floors a fracture of the limbs may easily occur, and practice has proved that even
stout-hearted men have hesitated to leap down into the Spring-cloth, and that it
has required much persuasion and consequently loss of time to induce females to
take the leap.
The delay of a second's time of persons in the front row, can cause the death of
those further back, and that is a fact well known; but even granted that those in
danger are courageous enough to take the leap at once, (which the occurrences at the
Vienna Ring Theatre and at Milwaukee entirely disprove) yet the saving of life
must any how proceed slowly as the next person must wait until the first has been
lifted out of the spring-cloth.
The extreme impracticability of Escape-hoses need not be specially mentioned
here, but the fact remains that saving of life by means of Escape-hoses is seldom
effected without injury to the head, and that it takes scarcely any less time to
manipulate than the spring-cloth, for before a second person can be let down the
first must be taken out of the hose.
The above mentioned deficiences are all obviated by means of the present
invention.
The whole operation requires but a few seconds, the manipulation is very simple
and the saving of life is effected without the least bodily injury, and incomparably
quicker than by means of any other Fire escape or other saving apparatus.
The present apparatus consists, first, in an iron hook .a. Figs. 1. 2. 3 having
two back projections or legs .a. a. in which works a strong screw spindle .b. b¹, a

page_text: third projection or leg of the hook .a. is so constructed as to be made shorter or
longer and adjusted to the wall of the building by means of a part of the leg being
moveable .e. in a suitable hinge joint .d.
Another construction of the hook as shown in Fig. 4. in side-view, Fig. 5 in
section through I II Fig. 4 is as follows:
The two back legs or projections .a. a¹. move in a hollow rectangular case in
which the parts p. pl. provided with the screw spindles b. b. are so fixed as to slide
back wards and forwards, and secured in proper position by a suitable bolt f. the
third leg or projection .e. in this construction of the hook being always of one
length.
This latter construction of the hook offers the advantage that it can be fitted to
the thickness of the wall far more quickly and precisely.
Both of the aforementioned kinds of hooks with their spindles can be fastened to
the wall.
Another hook Fig. 7 which is built into the masonry above the highest floor of
the building can also be used and in such a case the said hook .. would be very
useful to trice up scaffolding for painting or plastering.
After the proper securing of the hook a pulley block .b. Figs. 8. 9. 10 is hung on
to it having a suitable rope in which are a number of thimbles warped at a distance
from each other of about one half or a whole meter and into these thimbles the
person to be saved hangs the carabine-swivel .h. Fig 11 of a suitable belt, as shown
in Fig. 6.
These belts in adequate number for any immergency would accompany the
apparatus described and be furnished by the firemen in attendance.
The operation of the apparatus is as follows:
The persons in question suspend themselves by means of the belt and carabine-
swivel on to the rope in the middle of the window the hoisting up of the rope
being performed by one of the fire brigade, and one great and peculiar advantage
of this apparatus is that the operation can go on from all floors of the building at
the same time, and that the said operation is so exceedingly simple that any
uninitiated person can be instrumental in the saving of life from danger by fire by
means of the said invention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:
First. A rope provided with thimbles .g. into which the persons to be saved
suspend themselves by means of a carabine-swivel .h. fastened to the belt.
Second. The construction and employment of an adjustable hook .a. in which
leg .c. can be shortened or lengthened by the hinge joint .d. and the legs .a. a¹.
by sliding in the part p. pl. and secured by piu f.
Third. The employment of these hooks for life saving purposes in case of danger
by fire.
Fourth. The apparatus in its entirety as represented in design for saving life in
danger by fire.
Dated this 3rd day of January 1884.