A NEW FIRE ESCAPE, OR MACHINERY TO BE USED IN CASES OF FIRE
Year: 1808

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS. SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HARRIOTT, of Wapping, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, by His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Tenth day of May now last past,
hath given and granted unto me, the said John Harriott, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
to make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, during the term of years therein expressed, my Invention
of "A NEW FIRE ESCAPE, OR MACHINERY TO BE USED IN CASES OF FIRE;" in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said John Harriott,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within one calendar month next after the date of the said recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Harriott, in compliance with the
said proviso, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following description
thereof, viz:-

page_text: The nature and principle of this Invention or improvement for furnishing
the means of escaping from a house or building when on fire is very simple, as
shown by the annexed Drawings, and the following descriptions:-
The internal or chamber fire escape consists in having a fastening, made of
wood, iron, or other metal, in the nature of a small crane, as shewn by No. 1,
or in the nature of a hinge, as seen by No. 2, to fix to the bottom, top, or
sides of any window or other opening in any house or building. At the
projecting end of this fastening or fire escape there are two holes, as seen A, A,
in No. 1 and No. 2, through both of which a rope is to be reeved or passed,
as shown A, A, No. 1. At one end of this rope an eye is to be spliced or tried
for the other end to pass through, which then forms a slip noose B. The rope
is to be long enough not only to reach from the window to the earth when
doubled, but to extend several feet more slanting from the building; a small
line is likewise to be added C, fastened to the noose. This is all the apparatus
wanting for the chamber fire escape (though a pulley, block, and other things
may be easily added if required), and may be applied or put to use in the
following way-The chamber fire escape may be made to ship and unship at
pleasure, and may be shaped variously, and being secured to the bottom, top,
or sides of any window or other opening, with the 'rope fast or reeved through
both holes at the projecting end, the plain end of the rope is to be dropt or
thrown down to any person on the outside to take hold of, and to lower down
the person to be rescued. Persons to: be resued have only to slip the noose
over, the head and shoulders, so as to draw, the noose close just under their
arms, and getting out of the window, any other person or persons below
or remaining in the room, having hold of the other end of the rope, may lower,
them down in safety; and then, if more are to be rescued from the same floor,
the noosò is to be hauled up again, and the same process to be repeated as
often as necessary. The small line fastened to the noose is for the purpose of
drawing the suspended person clear away from the side of the building when
found needful. When there are several poople thus to be saved, those who
remain in the room may lower down the others. Those first down may then
lower the rest, and. a. moderately active person would find. no difficulty in
lowering himself down, more especially if the small end of the rope is again
reeved through another hole or two provided for the purpose in the sloping bar,
as shewn in the Drawing at D, D, No. 1, to deaden its passage still more.
For the external fire escape or machine for, moving from house to
house, the following description, with the Drawing No. 3, will clearly shew
the instrument, and how it is to be applied. The Drawing in No. 3 shews an
instrument on the same principle, though it may be variously shaped, made of

page_text: iron or other metal, to be fixed on the end of a pole, of a length propor-
tionate to the heighth of houses in the neighbourhood, so that it shall reach
and rest upon, clasp, or take hold of any window-sill it shall be elevated 'to.
At the upper or projecting end outwards, there are to be two holes, with a
rope reeved or run through them, exactly exactly the same as the one described
for the chamber fire escape. One end of the pole is to be fitted and fastened
into the socket of the fire escape, by which the fire escape machinery may be
raised full as readily as a ladder, furnishing a similar means of escape from
without as that of the chamber fire escape from within. The lower part of the
pole may be divided by a joint, so as to straddle and stand firm, as shewn by
the etching Drawing of a front view at No. 4, of the same machine as is.
delineated No. 8, and these legs E, E, may be opened more or less by a line
F. to heighten or lower the fire escape at the top to suit the place to which it
is to be raised, or two poles may be made to slide one up by the other, until
the upper end having the fire escape can be lodged on its destined situation;
or it may be made in other ways to suit particular situations.
The external fire escape, as shewn by No. 5, is on a different construction,
formed on the principle of the idler or lazy tongs. It is made of bamboo canes,
or deal, or other wood or metal, in slips, of any even lengths, according to the
size and elevation intended. Five double lengths (or more or less), or ten pieces
of eight feet long each, or any other length, are to be bolted in pairs together in
the center of each length, but so as to work easy on those bolts. The ends of each
adjoining pair are likewise to be bolted together, one pair to another, until the
five pair, or other number thus bolted together, lay edgeways one over the other.
There must be two or more sets or rows of these bolted pairs of bamboos, slips
of wood or metal. These two or more sets are to be secured together at any
required distance by bolts, the length of such distance. To the four corners or
upper ends a canvas or netting may be fastened, or a slight platform, as shewn
in the Drawing at G, No. 5, which thus forms a top to be raised up to the
windows of houses where people are to be rescued or help is wanted to be sent
up to the chambers. The lower or bottom ends of the bamboos, or slips of
wood or metal, are to be fitted to and rest upon the bottom of a case fixed on-
four wheels like a truck, to move readily to any place where wanted, until the
platform or top is required to be raised to any window. The whole of these
double rows or sets of bamboo, or slips of wood or metal bolted together to
form one piece of machinery, will lay down close in the case, not exceeding
two feet in height. But when a force is applied to raise the machinery, it will
extend to a height exceeding thirty feet, raising the platform, or canvas, or
netting top, either to receive any person from out of a window, or convey any

page_text: person up, to give ready aid of any kind. By raising the lower middle joint
or bolt that secures the sets together between 3 and 4 feet from the bottom of
the case, the top will be elevated more than thirty feet, a greater or lesser
number of lengths giving a greater or less height. The power to be applied
for raising the lower joint or bolt may be various; it may be by the common
rack and pinion wheel of the timber jack, or by a lever, or by a common pulley,
or by rope round a roller worked by a tooth and pinion wheel with a winch
handle, as shown in the Drawing No. 5. In either way the raising and lowering
of the platform, or canvas, or netting top, is performed with the greatest celerity,
by which people or goods may be saved, and applied to various other good
purposes.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Harriott, have hereunto set my
band and scal, this Ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eight.
JOHN HARRIOTT. (L.B.)
Signed, sealed, and delivered, by the
within-named John Harriott, in
the presence of
JOHN PENSAM.
Serjeant's Inn.
JN° GRIFFIN,
Ilis Clark.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the the same Ninth day of June,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid John Harriott came before our
Lord the King in Lis Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Ninth day of June in the von above written