360 



DESCRIPTION OF DUFOUR'S FIRE-ESCAPE. 



[That the interest of Gilbert White was not confined to the investiga- 

 tion of the objects of nature and the ordinary pursuits of a man of scien- 

 tific and literary taste, but that be was fully alive to any improvement in 

 the useful arts of life, is shown by the following account of Dufour's Fire- 

 escape, which I have found among his papers. It is in his own hand- 

 writing, but without date or any indication of its having been intended 

 for any especial object beyond that of a personal memorandum. The 

 description of the apparatus is in the same clear and simple language 

 which constituted much of the special charm of his writings. Previous 

 to Dufour's invention, the " Fire-escape " seems to have been limited to 

 " a pole, a rope, and a basket.' " It appears from the records of the Patent 

 Office that Dufour's patent is dated 1788, and the experiment described 

 in the following paper was probablv the first public test of its efficiency. 

 — T. B.] 



A patent machine, known by the name of the Fire escape 

 was brought along fleet street. It consisted of a ladder, 

 perhaps 38 feet in length, which turned on a pivot, so as to 

 be elevated or depressed at will, and was supported on framed 

 work, drawn on wheels. A groove on each side of this ladder- 

 like construction admitted a box or hutch to be drawn up or 

 let down by a pulley at the top and a windlass at the bottom. 

 When the ladder is set up against a window the person in 

 danger is to escape into the hutch, and so to be let down. 

 That the ladder may not catch fire from any flames breaking 

 out below, it is defended with a sheathing of tin. 



Several people, it seems, had illiberally refused the patentee 

 the privilege of trying his machine against their houses; but 

 my brother*, on application, immediately consented, when 

 the ladder was applied to a sash on the second story and a 



' Benjamin White, of Fleet Street. — T. B.] 



