Patent ID: 8100163

Claim:
An apparatus for controlling movement of a bather, the apparatus comprising: a rotatable governor member, the rotatable governor member including a worm that engages and drives a worm wheel, the bather being configured to be moved in response to turning of the worm wheel; a preload member configured to be biased by a biasing member, the preload member configured to, in response to being biased by the biasing member, apply a sufficient preload holding force onto the rotatable governor member via a braking arrangement that operates during operation of a governor associated with the rotatable governor member to prevent rotation of the rotatable governor member and the worm wheel, the prevention of rotation of the rotatable governor member and the worm wheel being sufficient to prevent movement of the bather, and wherein in response to the preload holding force being not provided to the preload member by unbiasing the biasing member from the preload member, the rotatable governor member is configured to release the worm and worm wheel to rotate and allow downward movement of the barrier while at the same time the braking arrangement of the rotatable governor member is configured to apply an intentional braking force to the rotatable governor member to slow rotation of the rotatable governor member to responsively slow the rotation of the worm wheel and the downward movement of the bather.