FIRE ESCAPE. Any machine or ap paratus for the purpose of enabling per sons to escape from the upper stories of houses on fire. The contrivances which have been proposed for accomplishing this desirable object are very numerous, and are of two kinds ; the first kind com prising those by means of which the escape is effected without external aid, and the second those requiring the as sistance of persons without. Of the first kind the most obvious is a rope-ladder, which may be kept in a sleeping apart ment, and used upon occasion by fasten ing one end of it to a window-sill or bed post. Mr. Maseres contrived an apparatus which consists of a long rope and an as semblage of cordage or belts, so disposed as to form a seat ; the person about to descend binds himself into the seat, and then lowers himself to the ground by al lowing the rope which is fastened to the window-sill to slide slowly through his hands ; and in order that this may be done easily, the rope is made to pass through a series of holes in a block. But unfortunately contrivances of this kind can rarely be expected to be of any use ; for supposing them at hand when the alarm of danger is given, few persons can command the coolness and attention which are requisite for fixing and adjust in g the apparatus ; and even then it is only the strong and active who could safely descend by such means from a considerable height.
With regard to escapes of the second kind, the object is to enable persons without to establish speedily a commu nication with an upper room, so as to afford the inmates the means of safe de scent ; or to remove them if necessary, as in the case of the feeble or children.
A very portable sort of ladder, invented by Mr. Young, is described in the Trans actions of tlte Society of Arts for 1813. ft consists of a number of cross bars or rounds, connected with ropes, which form the sides of the ladder ; the end of the rounds are fitted into each other, so as to form a pole, which is readily ele vated to a window ; and at the extremity is en iron frame terminating in hooks which can be lodged in the window-sill. When the hooks are properly fixed, a sudden jerk suffices to separate the rounds, which immediately fall into their places when the ladder is formed and suspended from the frame. But this ap paratus only answers the same purpose as a rope-ladder, and is therefore liable to the same objections. Mr. Brady's fire escape, described in the 34th vol. of the same Transactions, consists of a car or cradle, which is made to slide on a slip of plank fixed to a pole, and is governed by a rope. Mr. Ford's escape consists of a spar of timber about 35 or 40 feet long, having two projecting arms at the top furnished with prongs, by which a firm bearing against the wall of a house is ob tained. A grooved pulley is mortised into the spar near the top, and another near the bottom ; over the pulleys runs an endless to which is attached at one point a main rope, and at another the semicircular brace of a large grooved roller, which traverses up and down the space between the pulleys. This brace carries on the under side of the spar a hook, to which a cradle is attached, whereby persons can be easily lowered to the ground.