Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/127

 A Rescue Ladder for Treacherous Ice

By its use a skater who has fallen through thin ice can be saved without danger to the rescuers

���When the cry for help is heard the rescuing apparatus is pushed out until the pole and ladder can be grasped by the skater, who, with its aid is pulled safely to the shore

��MAN through the ice! Wherever there is ice skating — and careless, overly venturesome skaters — that cry is sure to rend the air. If these persons are fortunate their calls for help will probably be answered by a rescue party with a rope. But due to the thin- ness of the ice where it has been broken through, rescue. with a rope is a difficult matter and dangerous for the rescuers. But, with the aid of a new apparatus invented by George Hanlon, foreman in the Department of Parks, of New York city, lying ready for use in an emergency, the chances of fatal conse- quences of the accident are greatly re- duced. The device comprises an ordinary fifteen-foot ladder with a shorter ladder

��pivoted at one end and a pole mounted under the long ladder to hold the shorter one in place. This outfit is carried on a sled, on which the rescuers haul it to the spot where the skater has gone through. Obviously, the sled can be kept on the thicker ice ten feet away from the hole, while the pole is brought back to release the short ladder so that it drops into the hole. On this the person to be rescued can climb to safety.

If the skater is not able to help himself, however, the big ladder can be removed from the sled and be slid over the ice until it straddles the hole. Someone will then walk out and with a grappling hook haul out 'the unfortunate one, lay him on the ladder and draw him to shore.

���The ladder may be straddled over the hole so that one of the rescuing party may stand on it and locate the body with grappling hooks in case the skater has become helpless

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