TRIAL OF FIRE ESCAPE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2650, 5 October 1882, Page 3

TRIAL OF FIRE ESCAPE.

A very interesting and sucoosßful trial of a new desiga for a firo cseapo, introduced by Mr Cnrmalt, of Dun;-di.o, took placo at tho White Hare Hotel this afternoon. Mr Superintendent Kariia, several of ths City Councillors, and a large number of the publio attended on the occasion. The great desideratum of fire escapes is to have aa apparatus free from com- \ plicated machinery, nnd such as oan easily ba worked in tho flurry ard alarm o£ fire without the chance of getting out of gear or impeding the speedy escape of the inmates of tho housv-. Up to the present the escapes have either been complicated in their desiga, like the blook and tackle one used in Dunedin, or somewhat difficult, if not dangeroua, like tha rope and wire ladders in vogue here. Wow Mr Garmalt's apparatus is not only simplicity itself, but it is effeot ive. The most nervous person oan put it in work, aad a house which is on fire could be ol3»red with great rapidity. On entering the room on the uppor storey of the White Hart, frcm whioh the experiment was to take pl*ce', tho attention of the visitors was oallcd to plainly printed placards of direotione poitod I up, so ai to leava no posaibiiity of mistake, | As already said, tho apparatus is simplicity itself. In front of the -window looking oat into the street was what looked likn an ordinary dressing table. The top of this, which was moveable and worked on strong iron hinges, had in the centre an oval op«ni,:g, covered during tho timo the apparatus is net in uae by a lid. Beneath the tabic, and fastened to the oval opening, was a canvas shoot, whiltt on the outside of the »icdow were two iron supports. Tho modus operandi in case of fire ia as fol!o/fa:—1'hG top of the table is thrown up, tho window opened, and the tabic top rests on the two iron supports. The canva* shoot is then thrown out into the street, and the oocupants of tho room sire eriublud to descend swiftly and safely to the ground. In the oases of women and children the descent can bo rendered ea>y by the first one or two people going do wis, or anyone who may be outside stretching out the end of the shoot, *hioh is open t»t the top, so as to ensure sp.edy extrication. A number of persons, including a well-known Oity Councillor, practically tried tho merits of the escape this afternoon, and all wore loud in their appreciation both of its eim plioity and thorough effectiveness for this work. The cost is not large, and owirg to tho rapidity with which persons can loa>o the building, only two or tnreo would bo required for the largest hotel. No doubt, now that the usefulness of the invention has been practically demonstrated, they will corse very generally into use in Christchurch alike for hotels and private houses. Another trial will take place at the White Hart this evening at eight o'clock.

The text of a Toledo, Ohio,_ preacher's sermon was, 'He giveth His beloved sleep.' In the midst of this discourse he broke off and said, ' I see that there are a few atheists awake on the baok seats, and the remaining half-hour I shall devote (to ■hem,'