Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 11th Mar., 1896
Complete Specification Left, 29th June, 1896-Accepted, 1st Aug., 1896
1, FREDERICK BIRCH, of 34, Broyle Road, Chichester, in the County of Sussex,
Valet, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to ladders of the kind adapted to fold into a small space
when not in use.
A folding ladder as heretofore constructed possesses the defect that when hanging
against a wall the weight of a person upon it tends to move the rungs close to the
wall so that it is difficult to place the feet upon them.
Now the object of my invention is to construct a ladder so that the rungs
shall always be held away from the wall whereby the feet can always be placed
upon them.
According to my invention the links forming the side-bars are pivoted upon the
ends of cross-bars in the usual manner but, instead of arranging the ladder so that
the side-bars between the several cross-bars are in alignment, I arrange that the
said side-bars shall hang in a somewhat zig-zag form, and for this purpose I insert
stretchers between alternate cross-bars so that the intermediate cross-bars which
form the rungs of the ladder shall be pushed outwards away from the stretchers.
It will be understood that the ladder may be hung so that, instead of the
stretchers hanging against the wall, the cross-bars forming what I have described
as the rungs shall hang against the wall, in which case the cross-bars to which the
stretchers are attached form the rungs.
The stretchers can be made of chain or jointed so as to fold up with the ladder.
Dated this 11th day of March 1896
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicant.
I, FREDERICK BIRCH, of 34, Broyle Road, Chichester, in the County of Sussex,
Valet, 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 ladders of the kind adapted to fold into a small space
when not in use.
A folding ladder as heretofore constructed possesses the defect that when hanging
against a wall the weight of a person upon it tends to move the rungs close to the
wall so that it is difficult to place the feet upon then.
Now the object of my invention is to construct a ladder so that the rungs
shall always be held away from the wall whereby the feet can always be placed
upon them.
According to my invention instead of arranging the ladder so that the side-bars
between the several cross-bars are in alignment, I arrange that the said side-bars
Price 1

page_text: shall hang in a somewhat zigzag form, and for this purpose I insert stretchers so
that the cross-bars which form the rungs of the ladder shall be pushed outwards
away from the stretchers.
To enable my invention to be fully understood I will describe the same by
reference to the accompanying drawing, in which :-
Figure 1 is a front elevation of a portion of a folding ladder constructed
according to my invention, the ladder being represented as extended; and,
Figure 2 is a side elevation of the same:
Figure 3 is a sectional side elevation shewing the said portion of the ladder
folded up.
a, a are the links forming the side-bars of my improved ladder, and b, bare the
cross-bars or rungs, which cross-bars are extended through the links and secured by
nuts, as shewn, or by rivetting.
c, c are the stretchers to which the links are connected by bolts d, d as shewn and
which serve to hold the links a a in a zig-zag position so that the cross-bars or
rungs b, bare, when the ladder is hanging against a wall as shewn in Figure 2,
held away from the wall in a manner which will be readily understood.
The stretchers c, e in addition to being jointed together by the bolts d are also
jointed at e, e by means of bolts so that the ladder may be folded up as shewn in
Figure 3.
Instead of conne ting the links a, a to the stretchers c, c by means of bolts d, d
I may employ cross-bars f, as indicated by the dotted lines in Figure 1. With
this construction the ladder, instead of being hung as shewn in Figure 2 so that the
stretchers are against the wall, may be hung so that the cross-bars b, b are against
the wall, in which case the cross-bars f, f form the rungs of the ladder.
Instead of making the stretchers c, c in the form of links as shewn, pieces of chain
or the like may be used.
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. A folding ladder having side-bars connected by stretchers or the like whereby
the rungs will be held away from the wall against which the ladder hangs, substan-
tially as described.
2. The manufacture and use of a folding ladder substantially as herein before
described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
Dated this 27th dex of June 1896
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicant.