Re: emergency egress

["John S. Denker" <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

At 12:17 AM 9/17/01 -0400, Ludwik Kowalski wrote:

> What about an escape "pipes" made from strong canvas to be
> available at every floor? Pipes attached to escape ports would
> roll down and be pulled away by fire fighters on the ground
> (creating an acceptable slope). Sliding down into a receiving
> platform (able to handle frequent arrivals)

Slight physics problem:  What happens to the energy when a person descends
500 meters in such a slide?  I don't like the picture that is forming in my
mind: frequent arrivals of people with 3rd degree friction burns....
 -- You can't dump the energy into the people (they would get too hot).
 -- You can't dump the energy into the slide (it would get too hot).
 -- You can't make the slide conduct heat to the outside, since part of
its job is to carry people past a region of flames.....