IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SAVING LIFE FROM FIRE
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Hicks, of Pevensey, in the County of
Sussex, Mariner, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR SAVING LIFE FROM FIRE."
Sealed the 27th February 1874, and dated the 29th November 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Hicks at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th November 1873.
I, JOHN HICKS, of Pevensey, in the County of Sussex, Mariner, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
Apparatus for SAVING LIFE FROM FIRE," to be as follows:-
My Invention has reference to a portable fire escape, which may be
readily suspended from a house window, and brought into use in such a
'manner as to admit of persons lowering themselves or being lowered
by others in safety from the upper part of the house to the ground; also
to admit of firemen being raised with facility from the ground to the
upper parts of buildings when on fire,

page_text: And
my Invention for these purposes consists of a cage or cradle
made of strong rope netting lined with fireproof felt, which when in use
is suspended from a block fixed at the window, through which block is
passed a rope, one end of which is fastened to the slings of the cage or
cradle, and the other is held by the person lowering the cage or cradle.
The end of the rope is also passed through a second block fixed to the
slings of the cage or cradle, by which means the rope is made to form
an inclined support for the cage or cradle in its descent, such support
being inclined more or less as required in order to remove it from the
flames issuing from the windows by taking the end of the rope the
required distance from the wall of the house on fire. A guide line is
fastened to the bottom of the cage or cradle, by means of which it may
be drawn out of the way of a verandah or other obstacle to its descent.
The mouth of the cage or cradle may be kept open as required by
means of two oblong hoops or by other suitable means.
The apparatus when out of use may be enclosed in a box and kept in
any convenient situation in a bedroom or elsewhere, and may be readily
carried by one person where required for use.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Hicks in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 29th May 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HIOKS, of Pevensey, in the County of Sussex, Mariner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said John Hicks, Her special.
licence that I, the said John Hicks, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John Hicks, 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

page_text: The apparatus when out of use may be folded together and enclosed
in a box, and kept in any convenient situation in a bedroom or else-
where, and may be readily carried by one person when required for use.
Having thus stated the nature of the said Invention I will proceed to
describe more particularly in what manner the same is to be performed
by the aid of the accompanying Drawings, in which is represented the
apparatus above referred to.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 represents the apparatus ready to be hooked on to the window;
Fig. 2 shews a part of the cage or cradle folded together when out of
use; and Fig. 3 represents the lowering tackle on an enlarged scale.
In these several Figures the same letters of reference indicate corre-
sponding parts.
A is the upper block intended to be fixed to a beam or eye bolt.
secured to the window framing; B is the rope, one end of which is
secured to the block A, and passing over a sheave in the moveable iron
gin block C (shewn in Fig. 3 with a side plate removed) is passed over
a sheave in the block A, and down through or between two sheaves in.
the block C to the person lowering the cage or cradle; D is a shackle
connected to the block C, from which shackle the cage or cradle E is
suspended by the slings F. The mouth or top of the cage or cradle is
formed with two oblong hoops e, e, jointed in the middle to admit of
⚫their folding together when out of use, and the cage or cradle is or may
be made of rope netting with a lining of fireproof felt or other suitable
material; G is a guide line fastened to the bottom of the cage or cradle,
by means of which it may be drawn out of the way of a verandah or
other obstacle in descending.
rope
The working of the apparatus is as follows -On an alarm of fire being
given the block A is hooked to the eye at the window, the end of the
is thrown out of the window, the cage or cradle F is pushed outside
the window, and entered by the person about to descend, who must lay
hold of the rope B below the block C, when he will be enabled to lower
himself gradually to the ground, a hook H on the top of the block C
serving as a brake for the purpose. When he has reached the ground.

page_text: he liberates the rope B from the hook brake H, and by pulling the rope
causes the cage or cradle to ascend with facility. The descent of other
inmates of a house is effected by a person on the ground holding the
rope B at any required distance from the house in order to avoid contact
with the flames, the rope B when so held forming an inclined guide for
the cage or cradle in its descent. The cage or cradle may also be drawn
out as required by the guide line G. In this manner the several descents
of the cage or cradle may be made with the utmost rapidity as often as
required, and firemen may be raised from below with equal facility.
The apparatus may also be worked by firemen from below by suspend-
ing it from an adjoining house (where practicable to windward of the
burning premises), and drawing the cage or cradle to the windows from
whence the escape is required to be made.
The cage or cradle may if preferred be made of chain links or wire
rope or other suitable material.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I hereby declare that what I claim
as of my Invention is, the construction of a portable fire escape con-
sisting of a cage or cradle with lowering tackle, which can be gradually.
lowered to the ground by a person entering it from a house, and after-
wards raised and lowered as required with rapidity, the rope when held
from below forming an inclined guide or support for the cage or cradle
in its descent, by which it can be drawn out of the way of the flames in
a burning house, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Hicks, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-eighth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
..
Witness,
WILLIAM SPENCE,
8, Quality Court,
Chancery Lane.
JOHN HICKS. (L.S.)