Project two: Recording and capturing: 1.6 Detail and definition

Fire escape chute

Even before getting access to this item to be able to draw and photograph it, I am curious about its story and want to find out more about this kind of item.

This leads me onto looking at contemporary newspaper articles and advertisements, and observing both the design and content of them - fascinating!

This leads me further onto finding a link between this item and the city of Melbourne, Australia, where I lived for 11 years:

The newspaper articles and patent application paperwork help to flesh out the story of this textile, as they illustrate how it works, how it was marketed using 'demonstrations' and the general context of the time in which in was made and sold, and the very real threat that fires posed to human life.

I am also interested in how the escape chute came to be at Erddig. Who bought it? When? Was it in response to a particular incident or just as part of sensible safety precautions? Despite asking National Trust staff if any answers to these questions are known, it is not possible to find out exactly who brought it to Erddig and when.

I find it interesting that this photo of the fire escape chute, taken in the servants' quarters at Erddig, looks almost like a painting:

The detail and wear and tear, stains and distortions of the padded part of the chute interest me here, and I try to capture some element of this using textured paper and Inktense colour sticks, which I think has worked fairly well, except the creases have come out too dark, as I was aiming for a darker brown, rather than black:

I am also interested in the rope binding the edges of the opening and the strength they add to the chute's structure and focused on this feature in one of my collages:

Having seen the chute rolled out, it is now clear that it has certainly been used, and there are signs of wear and tear, almost like grass and mud stains, which show where it has been used either for a drill, for play, or a real fire.

Upon further research it becomes that the fear of fire was very great during Victorian times, with the combination of open fires, candles, flammable clothing, especially the wide circumference of the crinoline dresses in vogue at the time, and fledgeling fire services and many people lost their lives due to fire.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-creative-and-forgotten-fire-escape-designs-of-the-1800s

There were a whole series of designs and ideas proposed to solve this problem https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-creative-and-forgotten-fire-escape-designs-of-the-1800s of which the Anidjah Fire Escape was only one.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-creative-and-forgotten-fire-escape-designs-of-the-1800s

Other research leads me to discover an article from 15 April 1893, from a publication called The Hospital:

PRACTICAL DEPARTMENTS. FIRE ESCAPES. We are constantly being reminded by the sight of paragraphs in the daily papers headed " Fatal fires," of the necessity that exists for the provision of some method of escape from upper stories, in the event of the terrible calamity of a fire. It is to be hoped that, taught by sad experience in the past, most large institutions, hospitals, schools, &c., are now generally provided with escapes of some kind. Many are the cases where valuable lives might have been spared had there been even a rope at hand at the moment of peril. Various inventions for a speedy rescue have been brought out during recent years ; one very generally in use in hotels and institutions is that known as the " Anidjah " (after the name of the maker). This is quickly put into action, and involves no risk in the descent. The apparatus consists simply of a long canvas shoot or tube, the upper opening of which completely covers the entire aperture of the window when in position for use, thereby preventing any person from falling out. The tube, by a chemical process, is made uninflammable and if wished an absolutely fireproof sheath can be provided. The tube, which can be ordered of any length, is attached to an iron framework permanently fixed inside the window, and can be folded up and stowed away in a box ottoman. When needed, there is nothing more difficult to do than to pull it out of the box and throw the end of the tube out of the window. A rope run down inside, enabling the first person to slide down quite easily without assistance from below; the descent would probably be more comfortably managed when the end can be held out in a slanting direction, but even without this really no one, however nervous, need fear to trust themselves on so quick and easy a journey. The price varies according to the length of shoot required ; one twenty-four feet long costing £5. Particulars can be had from the offices of the Anidjah Fire Escape Company, 254, High Holborn.

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/edf0/bdf962e8ceaf437b7ea4ec4bc5e3c66d0de3.pdf