Body Catcher

US Patent Issued In 1913

If you lived in San Francisco in 1913, the big earthquake of 1906 was still fresh in your mind. Most of San Francisco was destroyed, not by the earthquake, but by the fires that followed. The earthquake broke all of the water pipes and debris filled the streets so it was impossible to fight the hundreds of fires that were fed by broken gas lines. Fire escapes, which are mandatory on modern buildings, didn't exist back then, so your only way out of a burning building was down the stairs (which may be on fire) or jumping.

The fire departments did have big mesh nets that the firefighters would use to catch jumpers but it required 4-8 firefighters holding the net and they were needed to fight the fire. So our ingenious San Francisco inventor came up with a portable mechanized solution, the truck mounted Body Catcher! http://totallyabsurd.com/bodycatcher.htm