I want to bring to light some of those that are available to society in this article. Who knows, maybe theres some you haven't even heard of before. So let's take a look at whats out there and see the many uses for people today.
Some of the different ladder variations that are uncommon to most are:
- The Bridge Ladder
- The Cat Ladder
- The Fixed Ladder
- The Orchard Ladder
- The Turntable Ladder
- The Hook Ladder
- The Rope Ladder
- The Pool Ladder
- The Assault Ladder
The Bridge Ladder: A horizontally laid ladder that acts a connector between 2 points separated by gulf below. This is the one you may see in the movies such as in a jungle where there a vertical chasm. It has lots of flexibility in it and when you walk across it it flexes up and down. It always amazes me how they build these.
The Cat Ladder: Or chicken ladder, used on very steep roofs so the workers won't slide off when working. I've done some roofing in my time and we always used a variation of this one by simply nailing down a 2x4 on the roof. And we'd just move it as we went down working from the top to the bottom.
The Fixed Ladder: This one is a vertical ladder that is stationary. Usually you see them on the side of industrial buildings. Usually made of steel and used to get up on the roofs of very high structures. These ladders sometimes come with steel cages around them for added safety to the worker. Since they are industrial ladders they are covered by OSHA and ANSI standards.
The Orchard Ladder: This one is probably self explanatory. It is a three legged step ladder with the third leg made so that it can be inserted between tree branches for fruit picking. The sound of it seems a little unsafe to me. But maybe some of you have had experience with them and can tell me how safe they are.
The Turntable Ladder: This is the apparatus you see on a fire truck. The name of it comes from the fact that its mounted on a rotating platter. It is also a hydraulic or pneumatic extension ladder. Used to allow the firefighter to reach great heights and project large amounts of water directly down into the fire.
The Hook Ladder: Also called a pompier ladder, used to be a very important tool of the fire department. This tool allowed the firefighters to reach into every window in a burning building. They would use it if there were no way to get up the inside stairwells. The firefighter would lean out a window with the pompier ladder and swing the hook through the window above them, latching the hook to the window stool. Allowing access to each floor of the building.
The Rope Ladder: This one is where the object to be climbed is too curved to use a rigid ladder. They may have rigid or flexible rungs. Climbing a rope ladder requires more skill than climbing a rigid ladder, because the ladder tends to swing like a pendulum. You also sometimes see these in children's playgrounds.
The Pool Ladder: Pretty self explanatory here to. Although you not only see them attached to swimming pools, but also they are used most boats. They also come with large handrails to facilitate gripping of the ladder.
The Assault Ladder: In my research I was amazed to find this one. I had never heard of it till now. How about you? This ladder seems to be used primarily by the military. It was created for covert operations such as sniper placement, and vessel boardings. It was developed and designed for tubular assaults including buses and trains and for first story breaching. Its extra wide design gives the user greater stability, but can be folded away to be stored. Interesting!
There you have it. Some interesting ladders in use today by our society. Some known, some not so known. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it.
Thanks for coming by.....
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