IMPROVEMENTS IN HOUSEHOLD FIRE ESCAPES."
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Knight Erskine Fairholme, of Old
Melrose, in the County of Roxburgh, Scotland, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN HOUSEHOLD FIRE ESCAPES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Knight Erskine
Fairholme at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 22nd April 1872.
I, GEORGE KNIGHT ERSKINE FAIRHOLME, of Old Melrose, in the
County of Roxburgh, Scotland, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN HOUSEHOLD FIRE ESCAPES," to be as
follows:-
My Invention relates to modes of constructing and arranging in
combination with household furniture, apparatus whereby the inmates
of a house can escape in case of fire by putting themselves in commu-
nication with the ground outside.
The chief objects of my improvements are to render the means of
escape readily available, to pack them conveniently when they are not
in use, and to make them capable of being easily transferred from house
to house with the articles of furniture with which they are combined.
One form of the improved apparatus consists of a rope ladder attached, -

page_text: to a metallic arm chair, which under ordinary circumstances can be used
as a chair, the rope ladder being packed beneath the seat.
When the apparatus is to be used for escape, the arms of the chair,
which are made jointed, are folded upwards and the chair is placed in
an inverted position upon the sill of a window, the back of the chair t
being on the one side of the wall and the unfolded arms being on the
other side of the wall. The chair is thus hooked over the window sill,
and forms in this position a strong hook bracket from which the rope
ladder is suspended.
In order to prevent the ladder from hanging from the chair incon. 1
veniently near the wall, I construct it with occasional bows of strong
wire projecting from one side of it, which bear against the face of the
wall, and so keep the rungs of the ladder from the wall a sufficient
distance for accomodating the hands and feet of persons descending
or ascending by the ladder.
Another form of the improved apparatus consists of a long sack
attached to a strong ring which forms its mouth. This sack and ring,
when not in use, are packed within a table or under the seat of a chair.
When the apparatus is to be used for escape, the sack is unfolded and
let down outside a window, its ring being hooked by means of eyes pro-
vided for the purpose on the legs of the chair, inverted as above described,
on the window sill. Or the table used for holding the sack may be
placed on the sill with its legs on each side of the wall, and and the sack
may be suspended from it. Or the ring of the sack may be made with
projecting hooked arms and legs, which can be hooked on the window
sill, so as to form a bracket for sustaining the sack. The sack being
long enough to reach the ground is twisted by persons there, and a
person entering the sack, or goods placed in it at its top, being held by
the twist, can be lowered slowly down the interior of the sack by
gradually untwisting it.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Knight Erskine Fairholme in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 15th October 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
KNIGHT ERSKINE FAIRHOLME, of Old Melrose, in the County of
Roxburgh, Scotland, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give.
and grant unto me, the said George Knight Erskine Fairholme, Her
special licence that I, the said George Knight Erskine Fairholme, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
George Knight Erskine Fairholme, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN HOUSEHOLD FIRE
ESCAPES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George
Knight Erskine Fairholme, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same was to be performed, 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 George Knight Erskine Fair-
holme, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being
had to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, and to the figures and
letters marked thereon, that is to say :—
This Invention relates to arranging and constructing in combination
with household furniture apparatus whereby the inmates of a house can
escape in case of fire by putting themselves in communication with the
ground outside.
The chief objects of the improvements are to render the means of
escape readily available, to pack them conveniently when they are not
in use, and to make them capable of being easily transferred from house
to house with the articles of furniture with which they are combined.
One form of the improved apparatus consists of a rope ladder attached
to a metallic arm chair, which can be used as a chair under ordinary
circumstances, the rope ladder packed under the scat.

page_text: Fig. 1 shews a perspective view of such a chair. The arms ▲ are
jointed at B, and the ends of these arms are connected by leather or
other suitable straps C to the back. They have also struts D, which are
made at one end with rings that can slide on the upright part of the
arms. When the chair is used as a chair these struts D serve to support {
the arms. When it is to be used as a fire escape the straps C are undone
and the arms are folded up as indicated by the dotted lines d in Fig. 1.
The chair is then placed in an inverted position upon the sill of a window
so as to form a hook bracket, from which the rope ladder is suspended.
Fig. 2 represents a section of part of the wall of a house under a 1
window sill, with the arm chair thus inverted and hooked over the sill,
so as to serve as a bracket, from which is suspended the rope ladder E.
Under ordinary circumstances this rope ladder can be kept packed under
the seat of the chair, but in case of fire it is unfolded and allowed to
hang from the legs of the chair when it is inverted, as shewn in Fig. 2.
In order to keep the rope ladder from hanging too close to the wall,
and to give room for the hands and feet of persons using it, it is made
with bent pieces of strong wire F projecting from its rungs at intervals.
ג
Fig. 3 represents a plan of one of the rungs of the ladder with such a
bent piece of wiro. e, e, are ther opes; f, the rung made of wood; and:
F the bent wire, each end of which is inserted into the rung f.
Another form of the improved apparatus is represented in Figures 4,
5, and 6. It consists of a long sack or tube made of strong fabric, such
as canvas, of sufficient length to reach from a window to the ground.
Figs. 5 and 6 show respectively back and side views of the upper part
of such a sack. At the mouth it is attached to a ring G, which is pro-
vided with two eyes g, g, by which it can be hooked on to hooks provided
on the window sill, or it might be hooked on to the inverted chair,
shewn in Fig. 2, in the same manner as the rope ladder E.
The ring G
has also two legs H attached to it, which serve as struts to keep the sack
away from the wall down which it is hung. When not in use as a fire
escape, the sack can be packed within a table, as shewn in Fig. 4, the
legs H being accommodated between the legs of the table.
When it is to be used as a fire escape the sack tube is suspended by
its ring G from the sill of the window, or from the legs of the inverted
chair, and unrolled until it reaches the ground. Persons there twist the
sack tube, and then the person desiring to escape enters the mouth of

page_text: the tube and is slowly lowered down by the gradual untwisting of the
tube. It may readily be understood that valuable goods placed into
the mouth of the sack tube can be lowered to the ground in a similar
manner.
The table, shewn in Figure 4, being made sufficiently strong, can be
placed over the window sill like the chair in Fig. 2, and can be used as a
means of suspending the sack tube.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I would have it understood that I
do not limit myself to the particular forms or proportions shewn in the
Drawings; but I claim,-
First. The use of a chair in combination with a rope ladder for a fire
escape, substantially as described with reference to Figs. 1, 2, and 3.
Second. The use for a fire escape of a rope ladder with bows projecting
from some of its rungs, so as to keep the ladder off the wall, substantially
as represented in Figs. 2 and 3.
Third. The use of a sack tube for a fire escape, and the mode of
accommodating it when not in use in a table, substantially as described
with reference to Figs. 4, 5, and 6.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Knight Erskine Fairholme,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of October,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
two