A Combined Travelling Bag and Fire Escape.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 8th Feb., 1894
Complete Specification Left, 8th Nov., 1894-Accepted, 8th Dec., 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
A Combined Travelling Bag and Fire Escape.
I, JAMES COMPTON MERRYWEATHER Engineer, of Greenwich Road Greenwich
in the County of Kent, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
My invention relates to a means of escape from fire whereby any ordinary form
of travelling bag or portmanteau is used in combination with a rope & an
arrangement for controlling the speed of the descent of the individual using the
escape.
To carry out my invention I construct a bag preferably of the type known as
the kit-bag, or portmanteau of leather or any suitable material, and arrange it to
open and remain so, notwithstanding any weight that might be placed within it; to
each of the four upper corners of the bag, I attach in a sufficiently strong manner
a ring or anything answering the same purpose.
I use either of the arrangements at present in existance for controlling the speed
of the descent of the individual (hereinafter called the brake) in which the brake
slides along the escape rope, & I attach the bag to the brake, by four separate
ropes each terminating in a snap hook, & each engaging with one of the rings at
the four corners of the bag.
To enable a person to descend from a building one end of the escape rope must
be made fast to the wall, window frame or floor, and the brake adjusted on the rope
in such a manner as to allow of the bag hanging conveniently outside the window,
& of a person placing himself in the same, the slack end of the rope remains coiled
up in the bag & is drawn therefrom as the bag descends it.
When the escape rope &c. is not in use I carry it in a suitably shaped receptacle
on the outside of the bag.
"
Dated this 8th day of February 1894
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A Combined Travelling Bag and Fire Escape.
I, JAMES COMPTON MERRYWEATHER, of Greenwich Road, Greenwich, in the
County of Kent, Engineer, 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 :-
My invention relates to a means of escape from fire whereby any ordinary form
of travelling bag or portmanteau is used in combination with a rope and an
arrangement for controlling the speed of the descent of the individual using the
escape.
To carry out my invention I construct a bag preferably of the type known as
the kit bag, or portmanteau, of leather or any suitable material, and arrange it to
open and remain so, notwithstanding any weight that might be placed within it; 'to
each of the four upper corners of the bag I attach in a sufficiently strong manner
a ring or anything answering the same purpose.
I use either of the arrangements at present in existence for controlling the speed
of the descent of the individual, (hereinafter called the brake) in which the brake
slides along the escape rope. I attach the bag to the brake by four separate ropes,
Di Q71

page_text: each terminating in a snap hook and each engaging with one of the rings at the four
corners of the bag.
To enable a person to descend from a building, one end of the escape rope must
be made fast to the wall, window frame, or floor, and the brake adjusted on the
rope in such a manner as to allow of the bag hanging conveniently outside the
window and of a person placing himself in the same. The slack end of the rope
remains coiled up in the bag and is drawn therefrom as the bag descends it.
When the escape rope etc. is not in use I carry it in a suitably shaped
receptacle on the in, or outside, of the bag.
In the accompanying sheet of drawings,
Figure 1 is a general view of the arrangement of the escape in use.
Figure 2 is a cross section of one form of brake we use for the purpose of
controlling the speed of the descent of the user. Figure 3 is an outside elevation
of the same.
In Figure 1, A is the kit bag, B B are the rings, one at each corner of the bag,
C is the brake, DDDD are the four separate ropes, and E E are the snap hooks,
F is the escape rope.
In Figures 2 and 3, A is a small circular drum constructed preferably of gun-
metal or aluminium. On the outside circumference of the drum is formed a spiral
or screw with a semicircular groove the same depth as the diameter of the escape
rope. The drum is carried in a cylinder of the same material. It is fixed and
prevented from turning therein by the specially constructed nut C and by a square
projection on the drum fitting into a similar shaped hole in the end of the cylinder.
On the outside of, and in the same piece as, the cylinder are constructed two short
tubes D D communicating with the interior of the cylinder, and lugs E E with
holes to enable the kit bag to be attached by the hook G.
The escape rope F is drawn through one of the short tubes D D round the
spiral and out again at the other tube. The friction caused by the escape
rope passing round the spiral enables the person using the escape to control the
speed of his descent from any height so as to render the operation one of perfect
safety.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is,
1. The use, for the purpose of a fire escape, of a travelling or kit bag in
combination with a rope and a means of controlling the speed of the descent.
2. The construction of a brake consisting of a spiral on the outside of a circular
drum around which the escape rope winds, having an outside cylinder fixed to the
drum to keep the rope in position, and which is retarded in its progress along the
rope by the friction set up between the spiral and the rope, substantially as
described and set forth in the accompanying sheet of drawings.
Dated this 8th day of November 1894.
ADDY
גזזות!
J. C.
זזומזםטו
MITTUNT ΑΑ ΤΑΤΑΤΤ ΤΑΤ