Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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BACKGROUND ~ND BRIEF SUMMARY OF TEII~ INVENTION
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3 This invention relates generally to an improved coat
4 structure and is more particularly concerned with such a garment whic h
includes means to establish a boatswain's sling or seating harness
6 for use in combination with a line and descent control device. ~
The prior art has provided special wearingapparel -
~ 8 which is intended to afford men working under hazardous conditions
-~ 9 with a reasonable degree of protection, and which oftentimes
provides means to impart special utilitarian functions to the
;~j 11 apparel which is not found in ordinary wearing apparel.
` 12 One item of special wearing apparel which the prior
13 art provides is a fireman's turn-out coat. This special form of
14 coat is a loose fitting garment of tough, durable, water-proof ;
'~ 15 fabric and has a loosely fitted inner liner o soft, heat
16 insulating material.
17 Firemen's coàts of the character referred to above are
normally mid-length coatsj extending from the wearer's shoulders
, 19 to near the middle of his upper legs or thighs. These coats open
centrally and vertically at the front and are provided with
~ vertically-spaced spring-hook and eye type releasable fastening
iii 22 means. Finally, such firemen's coats may be provided with belts
23 engaged about their exterior to occur at or about the waist o ; ;
2 the wearer and which are permanently fixed to the coat, as by `
,l 2 stitching. The waist belts have 1exible, opposite ree end
.f portions of limited longitudinal extent at opposite edges of the
1 2q open front of the coats and which may be provided with freely
~ 28 accessible retaining or buckling rings.
`¦ 29 The normal, intended use of the above noted belts and
3 rings is to enable the firemen wearing the coats to releasably
secure themselves to the fire truck while enroute to a fire, by
3 engaging the rings to anchoring hooks fixed to the fire trucks.
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` 1 Use of the above noted special utility coat is not
2 limited to firemen, but is widely used by men engaged in various
3 emergency services and rescue operations.
In the course of fighting fires and in other rescue and/o r
5 repair operations, it is not infrequent that the men must escape '
from elevated, hazardous locations by means of descent lines.
~ In view of the above, the prior art has provided
- 8 various special descent control tackle which, when necessary, can
,`; 9 be brought into use. An important part of such tackle is a body
engaging harness which engages with and about appropriate
11 portions of a man's body and with which other means and parts of
12 the tackle are cooperatively related.
13 The above noted harness means provided by the prior art
14 are, as a general rule, rather heavy, large or bulky structures
~i 15 of broad belting material with large and heavy metal pieces of
; 16 hardward fixed thereto. Such harness means are such that they
~ 17 cannot be practically and effectively provided for each man and
;;!j ~8 carried about by him, as a part of his personal survival
19 equipment.
On numerous occasions, firemen have been trapped in
21 elevated locations from which they could have escaped if
¦ 22 p~ovided with suitable descent tackle.
` 23 In efforts to overcome the problems noted above, the
24 prior art has sought to provide firemen and the like with
personal equipment which will enable them to effect their own
26 escape from heights, when necessary. To date, one of the most
~'~ 27 satisfactory of such devices comprises a small diameter, light-
;'l 28 weight yet strong rope and a descent control device mounted
~l 29 thereon. This descent control device is manufactured and sold
~ 30 under the trademark SKY-GENIE by Descent Control Inc., at Costa ~`
'r''! 31 Mesa, California, and is fully described in United States Patent
l No. 3,250,515, issued May 10, 1966.
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1 While ~he aforesaid descent control device has proven
2 to be most satisfactory in operation, one of the problems
3 during emergency situations, is the absence of an appropriate
~ harness which would be safe and yet confortable. One expedient
i 6 used by firemen is to couple the SKY GENIE descent control device t
, 6 the belt of his turn-out coat. However, coupling the above noted
; descent control device to the belt, not only concentrates forces
8 about a man's torso or midriff in an undesirable and dangerous
9 manner, but directs and concentrates those forces in an ¦
unbalancing manner which is such that a man is likely to be left
11 with little or no control of direction and/or body disposition.
12 ~ccordingly, one object of the present invention is to
~;;13 provide a utility coat of the general character referred to
1~ above with a seating harness incorporated therein, whereby a man
wearing the coat and equipped with descent tackle can conveniently
l16 couple the tackle with the harness of his coat for safe,
"',!17 controlled descent of his person through use o~ said tackle.
18 More particularily, it is an object to provide such
19 ¦ harness means in a coat, which includes a pair of crotch straps ;
. ao with upper rear ends secured to a belt fixed about the waist
21 portion of the jacket, intermediate lower crotch engaging
22 portions and upper front ends with loops and having means to
23 selectively couple said fron-t ends or front end portions with the
24 center front portion of the belt.
Another object is to provide such harness means wherein
26 the upper front end of the crotch straps are normally positioned ~:-
27 adjacent the upper rear ends of said straps and are releasably
28 secured thereto, whereby the straps normally depend from the belt
29 at the rear of the jacket in a single fold and are readily
manually accessible from between the wearer's legs for ex-tending
31 them through the wearer's crotch and coupling their front ends
'1with the belt at the front of the jacket.
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1 Yet another object is to provide such an improved
2 utility coat wherein the belt is split or opens at the front of
3 the coat and is provided with flexible free end portions of
4 limited longitudinal extent and carrying retainer or buckling
5 rings, and wherein the upper front ends of the straps define
6 loops through which related free end portions of the belt can be
q freely slidably engaged to secure those ends of the straps to
8 the belt.
g A further object is to provide suitable coupling means
for releasably securing the retainer or buckle rings of the belt
11 toyether and for coupling the belt with a cooperating descent
12 control device.
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14 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS `
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16 Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a fireman wearing a
turn-out coat embodying my invention;
8 Fig. 2 is an enlarged, fragmentary view of the front
19 portion of the coat shown in Fig. 1, with the coat in a partially
open position;
21 Fig. 3 is an isometric view of a portion of said coat,
22 with portions broken away to better illustrate the invention and
23 with a descent control device shown therewith; and
24 F1g. 4 is a vertical sectional view of a portion of the
coat, showing the crotch straps in the inoperative position in
26 solid lines, and in the operative position in broken lines.
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29 _____
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`.`1 I DESCRIPTION OF A PREFEE~ ED EMBODIMENT OF THE; INVENTION
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31 Referring to the drawings, the invention that I provide
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41 includes a suitable utility coat or jacket J, such as a fireman's
. 51 turn-out coat, comprising a torso-enveloping body portion, an
. 6 upper shoulder covering portion with a neck opening and sleeves, :
:; ~. all of which parts and/or portions are related-one to the other
8 in the manner of a conventional coat or jacket.
The torso enveloping body portion of the coat can be
lO characterized as having a rear panel lO, a pair of laterally . :
.~i ll spaced front panels ll with inner vertical opposing edges 12 : :
12 and defining a central vertically extending split or opening 0.
13 The lower end of the body section terminates at a lower or bottorn
14 edge 14. The hody portion is made from suitable, flexible fabric
~, 15 and is divisible into an upper portion which occurs about the
:1 16 upper torso or chest of the.wearer and joins with the shoulder
l7 covering portion and sleeves of the coat, a central portion which
¦ ~8 occurs about the waist or midriff portion of the wearer and a
~1 l9 lower skirt portion which occurs about the lower torso, buttocks
.1 20 and thighs of the wearer. ..... ::.
21 In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the coat ~;
22 is provided with one or more pockets 15 and 16, a suitable
23 collar 17 about the aforementioned neck opening, releasable .
.11 24 fastening means F for securing the opening 0 closed, and a liner L
within the body portion o~ the coat. Insofar as the instant
26 invention is concerned, the only parts or portions of the coat
27 or jacket J which are directly structurally related to the ~:
1 28 present invention are the intermediate waist and the lower skirt
1 29 portion of the jacket and the portions of the liner L which are
1 30 related to the noted portions of the coat.
.1 31 The first element or part of the present invention is
~ 32 a belt B engaged about the exterior of the waist portion of the
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1 body portion of the coat and ixed thereto as by stitching 20
to form an integral part of the coat. The belt B is open at its
front adjacent the opening 0 of the jacket, and has flexible free
4 end portions 21 of limited longitudinal extent. The free end
; 5 portions are folded and stitched to establish loops which are
6 engaged through and retain large metal buckling rings R. The
7 rings R are normally adapted to releasably engage with anchoring
; hooks or the like (not shown) on fire-fighting or rescue trucks
9 and the like, to secure the wearer of the coat to the truck ~ `-
during movement of the vehicle.
11 The belt B, while referred to above as the first part
12 or element of my invention, is ln fact a standard or conventional
i 13 part of the type or class of utility coat or jacket which is ,
,~ 14 here provided and is not to be considered as a new and special
element or part which is required to be added in carrying out my
! 16 invention. It will be apparent, however, that i one should
~ 17 desire to incorporate the present invention with a common coat
;1 structure which does not already include an integrated belt such ;;~
l 19 as described above, such a belt would have to be added as a
Z~ 20 special part.
21 The present invention next includes a pair of laterally
22 spaced, elongate, flexible, substantially vertically-extending, ;
23 U-shaped or folded crotch straps C with upper rear ends 25, upper
1~ 24 front ends 26 and central, lower, crotch-engaging portions 27.
Z 25 The upper rear ends of the two straps C are spaced
26 laterally apart and extend vertically at the interior of the
27 rear panel 11 of the coat, to occur at the opposite rear quarters
i 28 of the coat, and are fixed to the panel and the belt as by
29 through stitching 28 ~see Figs. 3 and 4 of the drawings).
30 The upper front ends 26 of the straps are folded and
31 stitched to establish loops 29, through which the buckle rings R
32 and their related end portions 21 of the belt B can be easily
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and conveniently manually en~aged, as shown in solid lines in
2 ¦ Figs. 1 and 3 of the drawings and in broken lines in Fig. 5 of
3 ¦ the drawinys.
41 In the inoperative position, the upper front ends 26
51 are normally moved rearward to occur adjacent the upper rear end
61 portions of the straps. The upper adjacent ends of said end
portions of the straps are releasably secured together by
fastening means M, which means can be in the form of metal or
9 plastic snap fasteners such as are commonly employed in wearing
apparel or which can, as indicated in the drawings, be that
11 form of releasable fastening means comprising fabric patches 30 :`
12 and 31 with opposing inter-locking loop and cut loop pile, and `
13 which is sold under the trademark "VELCRO". In this form of
14 fastening means, the cut pile of one patch establishes hooks ~.
which engage the eye~like loops of the uncut pile of the other
16 patch.
17 In the case illustrated, the patches 30 are arranged
18 adjacent the area of joinder between the belt and the upper
19 rear portions of the straps and are stitched thereto by the above
noted stitching 28. The patches 31 are fixed to the upper forward
21 end portions of the straps at locations longitudinally of the
22 straps so that the lower folded, central portions of the straps
23 are normally held up and above the lower edge 14 of the jacket, as -
24 clearly illustrated in Fig. 4 of the drawings.
With the structure thus far described, it will be
26 apparent that the straps C, when not in use, are normally held in
27 a flat, vertically-extending, folded condition, adjacent the inner
28 rear surface of the coat, where khey are out of the way and are
29 obscured from view. When thus positioned, the straps, while
obscured, are easily and conveniently positioned to be manually
31 engaged by the wearer of the jacket by simply bending over and
32 reaching the straps from between his legs. It will be further
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l ¦ apparent that upon engaging the straps in the above manner, the
2 ¦ wearer can easily pull the fastening means M free, draw the :. .
3 ¦ released upper forward portions of the straps and the central
~¦ crotch engaging portions thereof between his legs and upwardly
5¦ through the open fron-t 0 of the coat and engage the rings and
' 6¦ end portions 21 of the belt through the loops 29 at the ends of
i ~¦ the straps. Still further, when the straps are thus engaged with
81 the belt, the lower central crotch portion of the straps are drawn
between and upward into appropriate supporting engagement in the
lO¦ wearer's crotch and that upon closing the belt B, an effective, . .
11¦ comfortable and safe boatswain's sling~type seating harness is
12¦ established for the wearer of the coat. .
13¦ It is to be noted that the sea.ting harness thus
14¦ established need not be substant.ially form-fitting or tightly
15¦ and snugly engaged with and about the wearer as is the case with
16¦ conventional seating harnesses. Rather, it can be.rather loose
17¦ and free fitting since the related fabric of the coat and the .. :.
8¦ liner L, which will hereinafter be described, serve as web-like
l9 I members cooperati.ng with the harness to retain the wearer's body
20¦ in desired engagement within the harness.
: 21 ¦ ~The belt and particularly the straps can be established ~;
! ~ 22 ¦ of wide, though light-weight and highly flexible fabric webbing.
23¦ As a result, the harness structure herein provided is extremely
241 light and occupies little discernible space when in or out of use.
~ 251 Finally, the structure that I provide includes means for
¦ 26 buckling and/or closing the front of the belt when the straps C 1:
27 are engaged therewith and so as to close the harness and prevent 1.
28 the belt and straps from becoming disengaged.
29 In the preferred employment of the invention,
when the garment is a fireman's turn-out coat such as earlier
31 described, and the ends of the belt are provided with non-
:: interlocking buckling or retaining rings R, I provide a large
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`~ 1 ¦ snap-ring or carabiner S, which comprises an oval ring with an
2 ¦ opening or port in one side and a shiftable spring loaded
` 3 ¦ sleeve or link normally bridginy the port and shiftable to allow :
¦ or permit engagement of the rings R therethrough. The snap-ring S
¦ can be advantageously employed to engage with a descent control
~-~ 61 device, such as the previously noted SKY GENIE device.
'i q¦ In Fig~ 3 of the drawings, I have illustrated a descent
8¦ control device D with a descent line E cooperating therewith and
9¦ coupled with the rings R by the snap-ring S. In practice, the
~i 10¦ snap-ring S can be made a part of the descent control device
11¦ and stored therewith in the upper pocket 15.
-ii 121 The liner L of the coat or jacket J can be a loose-fittin
13¦ removable liner of heat insulating material which is coextensive
141 with the interior of the body and shoulder portions of the coat.
5¦ 'rhe lower edge 14' of the liner is free or unsecured. The rear
16¦ portion of the liner normally covers the straps C when they are
1 17¦ ln the inoperative position, that is, the straps C normally
8¦ occur between the rear portion or panel of the liner and the rear
9¦ panel 11 of the coat and are therefore freely accessible at and
i~ 201 between the lower free or unsecured edges 14 and 14' of the coat
'~l 21¦ and liner, as clearly shown in Fig. 4 of the drawings.
22¦ When the straps C are shifted to their operative or;;
231 working position, the lower rear portion of the liner L is free
241 to shift and to be drawn upwardly therewith and serves to pad and
251 support the body of the wearer, as clearly illustrated in dotted
26¦ lines in Fig. 4 of the drawings. I-t is to be particularly noted
27 that operation and use of my invention is not dependent upon the -
¦ 28 liner L and that in practice, the liner L can be eliminated
¦ 29 without adverse effect.
.l 30 In practice, the ordinary fireman's turn-out coat may be
¦ 31 provided with a large pouch-like pocket 15 in which a smoke
1 32 mask may be stored. As previously mentioned, the above noted
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` 1 ¦ descent control device D, with its related line E and snap-ring
can be conveniently stored in the pocket 15 of the coat J.
.~. 3 I Having described only a typical preferred form and
I application of my invention, I do not wish to be limted to the
51 specific details herein set forth, but wish to reserve to
.~ 61 myself any modifications and/or variations that may appear to .
.~ q.¦ those skilled in the art and whlch fall within the scope of the ~ :
81 following claims:
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