File:Fire Fighting Appliances Gilbert 1969 Plate 34.jpg

English: Fire escape models:

45 Fly-Ladder Fire Escape 1836. This model (Scale 1: 6) was used by Abraham Wivell to illustrate the lectures on fire escapes of his design which he gave in London in 1836. The model bears the name of the Royal Society for the Protection of Life from Fire and is very complete in its details. It consists of a main ladder, mounted upon a spring-carriage with two large wheels and provided with a lower frame-work by which it can be handled and elevated. The ladder is of such length as ordinarily to reach to the windows of the second floor of a house, while hinged to the top of it is a swinging ladder or fly ladder which, by means of ropes from levers projecting from it, can be swung upwards as an extension that reaches to the third floor. There are also two shorter ladders, one of which is fitted with two hooks so that it can be attached to the folding ladder so as to reach a fourth storey. Beneath the main ladder is a canvas trough, or shoot, down which a person can be passed, and at the upper end of this ladder are rollers to facilitate its elevation against a wall. This type of fire escape was very generally used in London and elsewhere until about 1880, when the extending type of ladder began to take its place.

46 Extending Ladder Fire Escape 1836. This model (Scale 1: 6) was used by Abraham Wivell to illustrate the lectures on fire escapes of his design, which he gave in London in 1836. The ladder is mounted on a small carriage fitted with two large diameter wheels, so that it can be easily moved to the site of the fire. The ladder is in two sections, the bottom section being fixed to its carriage while the upper portion slides in roller guides, fitted near the top of the fixed ladder, and is raised by ropes passing over pulleys. At the top of the moving ladder a metal frame is fitted having a pulley block for use when lowering persons by a rope. The extending ladder was not, at first, used so much as the fly-ladder, but it came into general use about 1880.

47 Hinged Ladder Fire Escape 1836. This is one of the models (Scale 1: 6) used by Abraham Wivell to illustrate the lectures on fire escapes which he gave in 1836. Before 1836 ladders were kept by the various London parishes at certain places for use in case of fire. Wivell’s ladder was also intended to be carried to the scene of the fire. It is made in two parts hinged together, so that in its closed form it can be easily transported. The two parts of the ladder can be locked in the extended position by rectangular collars, so forming a long rigid single ladder, when the full length is required.

49 Extending Ladder Fire Escape 1908. This model (Scale 1: 6) represents a 50 ft (15 m) Shand Mason latticegirder extending-ladder fire escape, used by the Guildford Fire Brigade in 1908. For the development of the extending ladder escape, many designs were introduced, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, to increase its strength and safety, to make it more compact, and to reduce its weight. The construction in which the lower ladders were made of roughly rectangular section, so that the upper ladders could be arranged to slide inside them, was patented by James Shand in 1880. The model shown is a typical design for a ladder for transport on a tender. It is mounted on a frame with wheels for easy movement when at the fire. The ladder has four telescopic sections. The outer section is fixed to the frame, while the other sections slide one within another. The two outer sections are similarly constructed, having four wooden beams joined at the sides by metal lattice work, in front by the rungs of the ladder, and at the back by bars. The next section is composed of two deep wooden beams joined in front by the ladder rungs and behind by metal bars, while the final, innermost, section is a ladder of normal type. The ladders are mounted on an unsprung chassis made of angle iron. In order to keep the ladder vertical when the machine is used on a slope, a hand screw, working in a nut on one side of the wheeled axle, enables the angle between the axle and ladders to be adjusted. Stability is further secured by the use of two long props hinged near the top of the bottom ladder and having spikes for sticking into the ground. At the bottom of the ladder a frame with handles for manoeuvring purposes is fitted. This projects at right angles to the ladder and is automatically locked in position when pulled out. The ladders are extended by a rope and pulleys worked from a drum near the bottom of the ladder. The drum axle has winding handles on each side of the escape and the ratchet release lever, for lowering the ladder, can also be worked from either side.

Plate 34 from Fire fighting appliances, the descriptive catalogue of the collection in the Science Museum, London.