Ten years after watching people trapped in the World Trade Center towers jump to their deaths, a San Francisco inventor is bringing to market a personal escape harness that works in buildings as tall as 100 stories.
The first commercial devices will be made in Indiana by a handful of small plastic-molding, engineering and machining firms whose owners hope to land long-term contracts to make the product, called Rescue Reel.
The initial batch of 200 or so units should be produced and ready for sale by Sept. 11, the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
"I started thinking about it the moment I saw people holding hands and jumping out windows (of the World Trade Center)," said Dr. Kevin R. Stone, a San Francisco orthopedic surgeon with a knack for invention.
By 2006, working with engineers, Stone had a working Rescue Reel prototype. It relies on iron-strong Kevlar cord, wound tightly around a reel, to allow people to safely rappel from high-rises.
When Stone wrote about his invention in Newsweek magazine a year ago, Indianapolis businessman Birch Dalton emailed Stone with some ideas about producing it. A few months later, the two were partners in the manufacturing process.
The team in Indiana will build the first 1,000 Rescue Reels, then Stone will decide where the manufacturing will land permanently.
"We're thrilled to be here. We appreciate the phenomenal skill sets that exist here," Stone said last week from the offices of Bose Public Affairs Group, in Chase Tower, which is helping him with marketing and contract procurement.
Stone and his wife, Susan, who is chief financial officer for his orthopedic clinic and side businesses, spent a day talking to suppliers Dalton has lined up to make the plastic housing and internal parts for the Rescue Reel. The cord will be the only component not made in Indiana, Dalton said.
How big a market exists for Rescue Reel is anyone's guess, but it could be broad, said Stone, whose other inventions include Joint Juice, a nationally marketed drink supplement that promotes healthy joints.
Landlords might buy the rescue devices by the dozens and put "a stack on the roof" of their buildings, Stone said. The doctor thinks other markets include buyers of high-rise condos; the elderly and disabled who work in tall buildings and worry about not being able to use the stairwells in emergencies; and operators of oil rigs, wind turbines and cruise ships.
"This hopefully will turn out to be one of the positives to come out of the 9/11 tragedy," Stone said. "I hope it sets off a whole new trend in building safety."
Stone said he and his wife have spent about $3 million to develop Rescue Reel. Only one working prototype exists.
The device could prove appealing to high-rise owners, managers and tenants if it works as promised, said Ken Petruska, a senior vice president at Summit Realty, a building management and brokerage firm in Indianapolis.
"There are a lot of logistical things that would need to be figured out," such as how users of the device would break windows to climb out, Petruska said. "If you can get through some of these logistical items, I do think there would be a demand for it."
Dalton said a plant in the Indianapolis area would employ a few dozen people.
"We have good engineers, good people. It's that collaborative environment," he said.
The Rescue Reel will be priced at $1,800 to more than $2,000, depending on how many feet of cord a buyer wants.
Stone and Dalton want to find ways to lower the cost of the cord, which makes up at least 30 percent of the cost of each unit.
If the price can be cut, Stone said, he envisions a time when personal escape devices like his could become as ubiquitous in high-rise buildings as fire extinguishers.
http://www.indystar.com/article/2011083 ... cue-device
It only takes one person to surrender a dog to a kill shelter ,but it takes many to rescue it.