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FIRE-ESCAPES.
FIRE-ESCAPES.
A fire-escape is a machine for escaping from window^when houses are on fire. Various machines to answer thispurpose have been invented by different individuals. Muchpraise is unquestionably due to all who devise the means toameliorate the sufferings of their species under any calamity :we cannot withhold our warm expressions of gratitude toall who endeavour to promote human good, nor can wesufficiently express our thanks to such as essay to preventthe occurrence of evil.
Thus we are disposed to eulogise those very laudableinstitutions, denominated Assurance or Insurance offices, 1for saving harmless the sufferers, with respect to pecuniaryloss, by the fatal raging, and the frightful mastery of theignitious element. Should these be entitled to approbationon account of their providential benefits, no less are thoseingenious individuals, who apply the purposes of mechanismto the very laudable view of saving life. Numerous havebeen the devices adopted for this humane purpose. Prefer-ence appears to have been given by a modern author, 1 to amachine invented by John Daniel Maseres, Esq. the de-scription of which has been communicated to the world byB. M. Forster, Esq. published, with some improvements byhimself, in the Philosophical Magazine: it is called “ TheSling Fire-Escape.” We recapitulate the leading features,but cannot attain exactness, because we have not the benefitof a plate, to which occasional reference is necessary.
1. It seems it was effected by an iron suspended froma beam, constructed on a principle somewhat similar to, andterminating like that destructive instrument used in ancientwarfare, called a ram’s-head, and now applied to the moreuseful purpose of slinging goods from warehouse-doors; but,we understand, with this special difference from the last men-tioned machine, that the bottom hooks are turned up to theupright part, to form two close rings, of4i inches in thicknessof the iron out of which it is hammered, to about half an inch.
2. There is a strong rope, made of flax, plaitted in a pe-culiar manner, for which a patent was taken out by Arm-strong, of St. John’s Square, Clerkenwell, of about three-eighths of an inch in diameter; this rope, it is said, must beabout twice the length of the distance from the window tothe ground.
1 First introduced under the reign of the Emperor Claudius,— Nicholson*
* Dr. Uees.