IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SAVING LIFE AND PROPERTY IN CASE OF FIRE, APPLICABLE ALSO FOR LOWERING WEIGHTS FOR OTHER PURPOSES."
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Abraham Martin, of 20, Newman Street, Oxford Street,
in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR SAVING LIFE AND PROPERTY IN CASE OF FIRE, APPLICABLE
ALSO FOR LOWERING WEIGHTS FOR OTHER PURPOSES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Abraham Martin at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th September 1876
ABRAHAM MARTIN, of 20, Newman Street, Oxford Street, in the County of
Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SAVING LIFE AND PROPERTY
IN CASE OF FIRE, APPLICABLE ALSO FOR LOWERING WEIGHTS FOR OTHER
PURPOSES"
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for saving life and
property in case of fine, applicable also for lowering weights for other purposes.
In a Provisional Specification filed by me on the 23rd May, in the year 1874,
No 1836, 1 described a life-saving apparatus consisting of a metal cylinder with a
screw thread cut around it, and also a longitudinal groove running from end to end.
A rope was wound around this cylinder making two, three, or more turns, and lying
in the groove and the hollow of the screw thread. A tube fitting over the cylin-
drical block served to retain the rope in its place One end of the rope being
furnished with a hook was made fast to an eye at the window or other place from
which the person or weight was to be lowered, and the other end of the rope bung
down freely. The person or weight was attached to the cylindrical block, which
as soon as the weight came upon it slid down the rope, the friction of the rope
around the block regulating the speed of descent.
In constructing apparatus according to my present Invention I proceed on the
same principles, but with modifications which render the apparatus more useful in
practice.
Heretofore it has been necessary each time it is desired to vary the friction by
altering the number of coils around the block to take off the outer tube and to recoil
the rope around the block, and the same thing has also been necessary after each
lowering in order to transfer the block from one end of the rope to the other. These

page_text: inconveniences I now avoid by employing an exterior tube having a slit or opening
in it from end to end by fixing the sling which holds the person or weight to this
tube in place of as heretofore to the block, and by providing a hook at each end of
the rope By turning the split tube 1ound until it corresponds with the longitudinal
groove in the block the end of the rope may be brought out, and then by turning
the tube in one direction or the other a turn of the 1ope around the block can be
put on or taken off, which having been done the rope may be relaid in a longitu-
dinal groove in the block, and a partial turn of the tube locks it fast. Again, after
the apparatus has been used to lower one person or load it is drawn up to the window
or other place from which the lowering takes place, and in place of as heretofore
uncoiling the rope from the block and recoiling it, which involves great loss of time,
it is only necessary since the instrument as I now construct it will work equally
well whichever way up it be placed, to reverse the rope end for end, the hook at
one extremity being removed from the fixed eye and the hook at the other extremity
of the rope mado to engage with it.
When using this apparatus a person descending can regulate the velocity at
pleasure by holding lightly to the rope below the sliding block, or the velocity may
be regulated by a person below holding on to the pendant rope and drawing it more
or less tight. Or again, a person above may regulate the descent by retaining the
end of the rope which otherwise is allowed to hang pendant.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Abraham Martin in the Gicat Seal Patent Office on the 9th
March 1877.
ABRAHAM MARTIN, of 20, Newman Street, Oxford Street, in the County of
Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SAVING LIFE AND PROPERTY
IN CASE OF FIRE, APPLICABLE ALSO FOR LOWERING WEIGHTS FOR OTHER
PURPOSES."
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for saving life and
property in case of fire, applicable also for lowering weights for other purposes.
In a Provisional Specification filed by me on the Twenty-third May, in the year
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, No 1836, 1 described a life-saving
apparatus consisting of a metal cylinder with a screw thread cut around it, and
also a longitudinal groove running from end to end. A rope was wound around
this cylinder making two, three, or more turns, and lying in the groove and the
hollow of the sciew thread. A tube fitting over the cylindrical block served to retain
the rope in its place One end of the rope being furnished with a hook was made
fast to an eye at the window or other place from which the person or weight was
to be lowered, and the other end of the iope hung down freely. The person or weight
was attached to the cylindrical block, which as soon as the weight came upon
it
slid down the 10pc, the friction of the rope around the block regulating the speed
of descent.
In constructing apparatus according to my present Invention I proceed on the
same principles but with modifications which render the apparatus more useful in
practice.
Heretofore it has been necessary each time it is desired to vary the friction by
altering the number of coils around the block to take off the outer tube and to
recoil the rope around the block, and the same thing as also been necessary after
each lowering in order to transfer the block from one end of the rope to the other.
These inconveniences I now avoid by employing an exterior tube having a slit or
opening in it from end to end by fixing the sling which holds the person or weight
to this tube in place of as heretofore to the block, and by providing a hook at cach
end of the rope. By turning the split tube round until it corresponds with the
longitudinal groove in the block the end of the rope may be brought out, and then

page_text: A. MARTIN. (LS.)