A NEW FIRE ESCAPE, WHICH I DENOMINATE THE IGNEVADOR
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Bate, of No. 3, New Hampstead Road,
Kentish Town, Surgeon, for the Invention of "A NEW FIRE
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Bate at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 7th July 1853.
I, HENRY BATE, of No. 8, New Hampstead Road, Kentish Town,
Surgeon, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW
FIRE ESCAPE, WHICH I DENOMINATE THE IGNEVADOR," "to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of a perpendicular tube or column of brick or
stone, running the whole height of the house, placed either in front or
at the back, of about twenty-four inches diameter, internally reduced
by an elastic material or fining to eight or ten inches, having a door of
communication with each story or flat. The door of iron to be so con-
structed as to open with a moderate pressure, and immediately between
it and the entrance to the tube a small stone lined recess, sufficiently
large to admit of the door being thrown back. The door to close

page_text: again with a spring as soon as the individual has obtained egress.
The person escaping then to place himself in the tube, whose sides
are to be so constructed as to yield to his pressure, at the same
time compressing him so as to admit of his passing quickly through.
This may be managed through the means of a long tube of strong
canvass, contracted to the above-named diameter, having bands of
india-rubber at intervals of every six or twelve inches, running the
whole length of the tube, in one or two rows, as shall be found most
advantageous. The interval between this tube and the sides of the
brick column to be occupied with tow, or flock, or wool, as most 1
expedient, not too tightly packed, so that it may give support to and at
the same time yield to the canvass tube while expanding. The wall
between the house and tube to be sufficiently thick to prevent the heat
from fire acting injuriously on the expanding material.
At the top of the brick column an opening to be placed, surmounted 1
with a covering of iron, for the purpose of affording air.
At the bottom of the tube a buffer is to be placed, similar to those
used by railway carriages, only upright, the round top receiving the feet
of the fugitive, elastically yielding so as to break his fall. This may
be made so as to support a weight of twenty pounds at its minimum,
or when erect, and say sixty pounds when depressed to its lowest.
A door of egress opening here into the open air should be placed,
constructed so as to open immediately it receives the pressure of the
body from within. It should be of iron, and not capable of being
opened from without. The canvass tube is to terminate at the upper a
part of this door of exit, which should be of a height of six feet.
A gong should strike on the opening of this door, so as to give
notice to those above that the tube is clear.
In large houses, where there are a number of inmates, there might
be one of these tubes for each floor; and in case of a person being so s
slight as not to offer sufficient resistance to the canvass tube, a rope
may be placed to enable him or her to moderate the rapidity of the
descent. Young children may be taken in the arms of the parents or
adults.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Bate in the Great Seal Patent Office, on
the 7th December 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
HENRY BATE, of No. 3, New Hampstead Road, Kentish Town,
Surgeon, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seven-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Henry Bate, Her special licence that I,
the said Henry Bate, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Henry Bate, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "A NEW FIRE ESCAPE, WHICH HE
DENOMINATES THE IGNEVADOR,'" upon the condition (amongst others)
that the said Henry Bate, by an instrument in writing under my
land and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Bate, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say:
This Invention consists of a tube composed of some durable and
elastic material, or of an inelastic material, such as canvass, rendered
capable of contracting and expanding by means of elastic springs,
applied in rows or otherwise, externally. The tube must be of such

page_text: a diameter, when expanded to the greatest, as to admit of a very stout
person passing through, but capable of contracting to such a calibre
that it shall embrace sufficiently a very small child. The upper
extremity of this tube is to be kept permanently open by means of a
ring of iron or some strong material, and in the position it is intended
to occupy should be on a level with the uppermost floor of the house
to which it is attached, access to it being provided by window or door-
way. The bottom of the tube is to be supplied with a circular mattrass
or platform, of about the same diameter as the tube itself, suspended by
clastic springs. This is denominated the buffer, and is placed to receive
the feet of the descending person, breaking the fall, should he have
descended with unsafe rapidity through the tube. It is evident that any
party entering this tube would be so embraced and supported by it that
his gravitating tendency would be lessened thereby; still, by attention
being paid to the amount of elasticity of the tubes parieties his descent
will be sufficiently rapid. Further, the tube itself possesses a compen-
sating influence on bodies of different sizes and weight; the greater
the body, and consequently the heavier the weight, the greater resis-
tance is offered to its descent, by the elastic medium being put to greater
tension, and vice versa. Again, in the event of any party having
descended with more than ordinary rapidity, in consequence of not
having received sufficient resistance from the parieties of the tube,
his perfect safety is secured by the buffer receiving him at the bottom
and yielding to his weight, thereby breaking his fall. The perfect
safety of the instrument has been sufficiently tested at the Polytechnic
Institution, where three or four thousand descents have been eflected
from a height of nearly thirty feet without the slightest accident.
The machine thus described may be applied in various ways to
houses, attention being paid to the necessity of having it always ready
for instant use.
The following seem to be among the most desirable:-
First, it may be contained in a perpendicular shaft of about two and
a half feet in diameter, composed of brick, stone, or zinė, running the
whole height of the house, having a door of iron, shutting by a spring
and opening in the thickness of the wall, to enter the shaft and elastic

page_text: tube from cach of the upper floors, with a door of exit at the bottom
of the shaft, so constructed as to open the moment it receives the
pressure of a descending body, but incapable of being opened from
without.
Secondly, the clastic tube and buffer may be contained in a box,
placed in the lower part of a balcony or chamber, of about three feet
diameter, access to the chamber being provided for by a doorway from
the uppermost floor of the house. The box containing the machine to
be supplied with a trap door, which may be easily made to fall by the
opening of the door of entrance to the cliamber. Thus, the instrument
may be made to drop through and rendered ready for use by the act of
entering to it. If preferred, the balcony may be placed at one of the
upper windows; but in every instance care must be taken that the
instrument shall not have to drop opposite any window. If this is
unavoidable, the windows should be supplied with iron shutters. Never-
theless, so rapidly can a number of persons escape, that in almost every
instance it is presumed the house will have been emptied of its inmates
long before the tube can have sustained injury by fire issuing from the
windows. Twenty persons may escape in three minutes.
Thirdly, for the greater protection of the instrument in cases where
the pendendicular shaft is wished to be dispensed with. In building
terraces, &c., a groove should be left of about two feet and a half deep
and wide, placed between every two alternate houses, either behind or
in front, extending from the ground to about five feet above the level
of the upper floor, into which a door of communication from each house
is to be placed. The projecting chanıber described in the second mode
of application, containing the instrument in its lower part, is to be
fixed so as to be entered by the doors above mentioned, thus making
onc tube serve for two houses. Drawings shewing this form of appli-
cation, and also the elastic tube itself, are seen in another sheet.
It is seen that this instrument is in every form of application herein
described always ready for immediate use.
All that is necessary on
the part of the fugitives from fire being to enter a doorway, and they
are almost instantaneously conveyed to the ground with perfect safety
externally to the building. Persons fainting and invalids, if placed in

page_text: the tube, their safety is secured. It is recommended that young
children under two or three years should be taken on the shoulders
of adults.
The Patentee particularly claims the elastic tube and the buffer.
He does not limit himself to any particular method of obtaining the
required elasticity, but he believes that a tube of canvass, with vulcan-
ized india-rubber springs, arranged as seen in the Drawing, to be the
best.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Batc, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventh day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.