US3504764A - Intruder resistant fire escape - Google Patents

Description

April 7, 1970 R. H. LAWSON ET 3,504,764

INTRUDER RESISTANT FIRE ESCAPE Filed Nov. 24. 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet l l/WE/VTORS ,Q. HAROLD ANOEEW L. LAW$0N ATTORNEY April 7, 1970 H, LAWSON ET AL 3,504,764

INTRUDER RESISTANT FIRE ESCAPE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Nov. 24. 1967 United States Patent 3,504,764 INTRUDER RESISTANT FIRE ESCAPE Royal H. Lawson, 7834 St. Boniface Lane, Baltimore, Md. 21222, and Andrew L. Lawson, Rte. 5, Box 38B, Pasadena, Md. 21122 Filed Nov. 24, 1967, Ser. No. 685,510 Int. Cl. A62b J/ZO; A65g 11/00 U.S. Cl. 182-48 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED PATENTS In the past there have been many attempts to make a usable fire escape apparatus, and have quite often used various devices to make them more or less burglar proof. To accomplish this the idea is essentially to allow the person to proceed from an upper story; assuming that the first story is such that the person can step out onto the ground and the second or third story being too high to step out onto the ground, the person wants to have some means of descending to the ground from a fire ridden building in relative safety without jumping. In the past, these devices such as Patent No. 1,936,195 have consisted of various methods of locking and of folding the hinged ladder or ladder combination, or in climbing a chute so that it can be put up and out of the reach of persons who might be potential burglars. This standard method being a method of making the last section cantilevered and balanced so that it could be lowered by the additional weight of the person on the ladder, but normally would remain in an upward position too high for a burglar to reach. Most of these devices have the basic disadvantage that whatever height the constructor designed as being too high for the burglar to reach can be overcome by the mere addition of a barrel or ladder or box to stand on, to reach the lower wrung of the fire escape ladder. In the subject case however, a movable slender vertical nonstep device similar to Patent No. 1,560,128 leaves no hand hold for climbing but allows the slide or non step device to be useful for descending, making it virtually a one way transportation device. Something similar to this is one shown in Patent No. 1,936,195 where a fold up device was buried in the ground and upon proper signaling and actuation would be power drive by worm and gear to raise it in a hinged fashion against the building. This, of course, required a great amount of ground room and a complete arc of clearance and then, as far as being burglar proof, all the burglar had to do was to gain access to the motor control switch to raise the ladder to the window. It also had the further disadvantage that the method of attaching the safety device was not necessarily controllable by the person at the window. The next device that is similar to that, is Patent No. 2,078,379, a truck mounted device that conveys ice for icing refrigerated vehicles and shows basically a similar structure of a belt conveyor that could be used for either loading or unloading ice or human beings. One of the most recent patents in this line is a combination ladder and chute, Patent No. 3,026,961. This device has several foldable features, but in each of these features it is again 3,504,764 Patented Apr. 7, 1970 limited by the fact that it has at least one part stationary to the ground and one part fixedly attached to the wall so that by some means of toe holds, even though the device were in its folded position, it would be possible for a person of reasonable agility to climb the device and thus gain entrance to the second or third story as the case may be. Also, these devices, all shown including chutes and similar devices, Patent No. 670,050 and Patent No. 1,560,- 128 are devices of relative complexity with a large number of parts, many cross braces and other protrusions that would provide footholds for a burglar climbing these devices. In the subject invention the device consists mainly of a smooth chute which is capable of transporting a person safely from a window ledge down to ground level over a moderate number of stories, such as two, three or maybe four, and that this chute is normally in such a position that even if one were able to climb it and succeed in climbing to the top, they would find themselves quite a distance away from the window and thus could not gain access to the house to which it was to be attached for emergency use. The hinged chute could then be released by a rope or cable in a protective cover, triggered from inside the window at the time it was needed by the person who desired to use it. This is basically an individual fire escape device particularly suitable for row houses and houses of at least two and three stories. An understanding of this apparatus may be had from the following description and the accompanying drawings together forming the specifications required by the statute. In said drawings FIGURE 1 is a partial perspective view showing the general appearance of the fire escape in operation and in storage position. FIGURE 2 shows a detail of the chute release mechanism.

Referring to FIGURES 1 and 2 it may be seen that the apparatus has a generally smooth external appearance somewhat like a tower or a coal chute stood on end with a single bar connection to the window which it is intended to serve. The fire escape generally is indicated by 10 and its standard or vertical holder by 30. The chute 10, is composed basically of 2 side rails 14 and a base 12 which make a generally U-shaped channel. These are attached at the ground level by a pivot 38 in a bearing plate 40 which is attached to the standard 30. The standard 30 is made of two poles 32 or other upright rigid devices with X-shaped braces 36 that are attached by screws 34. The poles 32 are buried for some short distance in the ground to provide good sturdy physical support and at the top they have a receiving box 42 which receives the release cable 18 carried through a tube 20. This release cable 18 is so designed as to actuate a spring loaded latch 22. This latch pivots at a point 24 and cable 1 8 is attached at point 26 and restrained by spring 28 so that normally it holds slide 10 in the vertical position against all normal pressures, however upon pulling cable 18, latch 22 then kicks the slide towards the window against the operation of spring 28. Gravity, of course, can then take over and slide 10' will then fall against window shown but not claimed as any portion of the invention other than its co-active relationship to the utility of the device. The purpose of the tube 20 carrying rope 18 is such that should anybody try to actuate the slide by trying to hook onto the tube or thrown a rope over the tube to release this slide 10 the tube would bend, being of very light material, and thus pinch rope 18 and prevent it from being actuated, rather than cause it to be actuated. This is an additional safety device. An alternative form of this device would be a simple pole attached to a position at the window which pole held the slide away from the window until it was released and the pole also could be seated in a tubular socket with a pair of electrical conductors as shown in the detail of FIGURE 3 so that if any thing external were done to the pole, such as grab it, throw a rope over it to try to hook it and release the slide, it could be released, but this would close the circuit from contact ring halves 52 thru pole sleeve 54 through battery 56 to buzzer 58 and thus sound an alarm that somebody had disturbed the fire escape. An appearance cover 60 is pivotally mounted to frame 32 at 62 and operates in a manner to cover the one face of the invention, in a hinged manner, so that a person sliding down 12 would hit this cover, which would then be swung out of the way and held out of the way by means of a no back device, known in the trade. It is to be understood that the invention herein shown and described may be additionally used for other purposes such as delivery of bulk products, emergency escape for other things than fire, it can be used as a fold-up toy sliding board in connection with another building and for other escape operations. The invention is not intended to be limited to the construction shown herein, but may be made in many ways within the scope of the appending claim.

The invention is directed to a pivotal slide, vertically mounted, releasable by actuation by the person in the building to which this pivoted slide is to lean against.

We claim:

1. An apparatus for aiding the escape of occupants of the upper stories of a building to the ground level, comprising a pivoted chute means a vertical chute holder means said pivoted chute means and a vertical chute holder means being spaced with the pivot substantially at the ground level, a horizontal distance from the window or other emergency opening of the building, at a distance just sufficient so that pivoted chute means can rotate about a horizontal axis of the pivot means when said pivoted chute is released to pivot and lean against said building opening so that the end of the chute substantially reaches the sill of said opening, a selectively releasable means to secure said chute in the vertical position, said selectively releasable means cooperating with the upper end of said chute holder means and pivoted chute means so that the upper end of said pivoted chute means can be moved from adjacency to said vertical holder means to substantial adjacency with the sill of said building opening.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 282,478 7/1883 Woodbury 18248 l,555,355 9/1925 Charette 182-48 2,901,055 8/1959 Fairchilds et a1 182-49 2,946,396 7/1960 McDougal 182-49 REINALDO P. MACHADO, Primary Examiner US. Cl. XJR. 193-2

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