Fire Brigade and other Purposes.
Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 18th Aug., 1886.
Complete Left, 14th Apr., 1887.
Complete Accepted, 17th May, 1887.
Fire Brigade and other Purposes.
We THOMAS HUNT of 10 Munday Street St. Pollard Street Manchester in the
County of Lancaster Fireman, and WILLIAM KING of Hillkirk Street Beswick,
Manchester in the aforesaid County Machenic do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows :-
It is a spring clip inserted in the side or sides of each Ladder and will not come
apart when catching any projections or impediments when being raised or lowered,
Our object is to do away with lashing the ladders together by ropes.
They are disconnected by simply pressing the lever of the said Lock.

page_text: Fire Brigade and other Purposes.
We THOMAS HUNT of 10 Munday Street Pollard Street, Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, Fireman, and WILLIAM KING of Hilkirk Street Beswick, Manchester
aforesaid, Mechanic 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 and accompanying drawings :-
:-
Our said Invention relates to a method of securing ladders together in line so as to
lengthen and extend the same, for the purpose of reaching heights or descending to
levels not attainable by a single ladder. Under such circumstances it has hitherto
been the custom to lash the different lengths of ladder together with ropes an operation
which involves considerable time both in securing and in disengaging while such
attachments are at all times insecure. According to our invention we employ a spring
clip by which the ends of the ladders can be quickly and securely attached and
disengaged automatically.
And in order that our said invention may be properly understood wo will now
proceed more particularly to describe the same with reference to the annexed sheet of
drawings-
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a portion of two ladder sides coupled together by our
improved spring clip.
Fig. 2 is a view partly in section at right angles to Fig. 1.
Fig. 3 is a sketch to a reduced scale representing two ladder lengths coupled
together.
As will be seen from these views, each ladder end a a' is provided at each side with
bands or sockets which embrace and accurately fit the ends of the ladders to be
coupled. These bands or sockets are secured to the ladder sides by screws c.
Midway between the hands or sockets b, is situated the clip d, one such clip being
on each side of the ladder. The ends a¹ of the other ladder to be coupled are recessed
as shown at e so as to admit the head of the clips d. To resist wear, the front of the
recess e is protected by a plate g. The clip consists of a flat spring secured to the
ladder side by screws as shown in dotted lines and the clip head is attached by a
link to the end of a lever i which is pivotted at k to the bracket 7. The lever is
situated in a recess formed in the ladder side a the edge of the recess being protected
by a plate m as shown. A recess is also formed in the inner side of the ladder side a
and behind the spring clip so that when the upper free end of the lever i is pressed
inward by the finger or thumb the lower end of the lever draws the spring clip head f
out of the recess e in the ladder side a into the recess in the ladder side a, thus
allowing the ladder ends a and a to be drawn clear of each other. When it is desired
to re-couple the ladders the ends are simply pushed into the respective sockets or
bands. The clip head is pushod inward by the advancing end a¹ until the

page_text: recess e comes opposite the head. The head then snaps into the recess e and the
coupling is effected. A stop or one of the ladder rungs n prevents the end a' from
going farther than the proper distance. Our improved spring clip is applicable to
ladders of all descriptions and more especially to the ladders used in fire brigades ;
scaling ladders for military purposes and in all cases where it is expedient that such
ladders should be quickly, securely, and easily coupled and disengaged.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we claim is :-
(1) The general combination and construction of spring clip for connecting two or
more ladders together substantially as hereinbefore described and shown.
(2) In apparatus of the indicated nature for connecting ladders together the
employment of a spring clip d having a head engaging with a recess e and operated
from a pivotted lever i, substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated.
DUTTON & FULTON,
1, St. James Square, Manchester,
Agents.