Front	Left Side	Right Side

Wall Receptacle, Closed	Wall Receptacle, Open

Technical Details

I acquired this Rope Fire Escape Manufacturers Descender from Renee Hastings in 2023.

My Rope Fire Escape Manufacturers Descender is 174 mm. tall, 43 mm. wide, 24 mm. thick, and weighs 275 g. It is made from cast iron. The rope passes over five bollards sandwiched between two side guides. The eye is at the center of the device, not the bottom. The eye is 25 mm. in diameter and has a riveted chest sling attached.

The descender is part of an emergency fire escape kit. Mine came with about 25 feet (8 m.) of nominal 1/2 in. laid manila rope. I measured the rope diameter at 13.7 mm. The descender. rope, and a screw hook for rigging are contained in a metal receptacle designed for wall mounting.

The descender has "ALP" cast in raised letters on the unloaded side of the central bollard. The receptacle has the following information on the lid in raised letters, surrounded by a decorative oval:

Comments

The box lid led me to U.S. Patent #1,300,870, "Receptacle for Fire Escapes" by A. L. Plush. This patent's figure 2 showed a "typical" descender inside a wall-mounted receptacle. The "typical" descender matched this one, and Plush's name lead me to his earlier U.S. Patent #1,246,655 for a fire escape descender quite similar to mine, but with one full rope wrap around the central bollard.

I lack the requisite stupidity needed to test such a valuable and deteriorating antique. I think the descent would be much faster on the decaying, century-old manila than on a new, modern rope capable of supporting human weight. On new high-quality manila, I think the descender should work fine, but hanging from a chest harness would not be pleasant.