More archival finds, 1985–1991

These items were not part of the original Exit Traveler website. Each entry gives a full citation and where it was found. Scans are shown where the archive provides a page image; for books that are only available through lending libraries we show short search snippets, labelled as such.

Magazine pages

The Netherlands, 1985

Seven Dutch newspapers · May–July 1985

The Exit Traveller in the Dutch press

De Telegraaf, de Volkskrant, NRC Handelsblad, Algemeen Dagblad, Nederlands Dagblad, Nieuwsblad van het Noorden and Limburgsch Dagblad on the device from VDN International of Doesburg, with clippings, Dutch excerpts and English translations.

Read the Dutch press

Patents

U.S. Patent 4,588,046 and its European, Dutch and other counterparts, with the original drawings and the 1988 assignment of the U.S. patent to R.A.W. Rescue Products: Patents →

Trade press and directories

• Fire Engineering, August 1, 1987, “Equipment Digest”: item “Lowering device.” “The Exit Traveler from R.A.W. Rescue Products Inc. is a compact, automatic lowering device. By hooking one end around a fixture in the room where you’re operating and strapping a harness around you, you can lower yourself out of a window as high up as 12 floors. The Exit Traveler comes with an emergency light, hook, cable, window centerpunch, and instruction manual.” fireengineering.com (text only; no page image online).
• Thomas Register of American Manufacturers, 1990 (Products & Services volume): listing under “Platforms: Escape” for “R.A.W. Rescue Products, Inc.” of Ambler, Pa., and a catalog-file advertisement headed “Escape Fire with EXIT TRAVELER … High-rise fires take lives. New device offers …” Internet Archive (full-text snippets; lending copy).
• National Review, classified advertisement (issue and date not identified): “HIGH-RISE FIRE! Awful thought. New European ‘Exit-Traveler’ can save your life. Tested in hotel fires, safe, portable.” Seen four times in the Internet Archive’s full-text search of its National Review collection; the advertiser’s telephone number (a Dallas area code) suggests another dealer. Partial: the issue could not be identified.

Books (snippets)

Marketing Masters

Royal Publishing, Glendora, Calif., 1990 (ISBN 0-934344-31-0); chapter by Stephen Paul Gnass on the Invention Convention. Internet Archive record (lending-library copy; not viewable in full).

Snippets (short full-text search excerpts, not full pages):

• “This portable emergency escape system, the Exit Traveler, is engineered to attach to a building and gently …”
• “… the media clamored to cover his product. ABC, NBC, MTV, Business Week magazine and the Los Angeles Times featured stories about the Exit Traveler demonstrations given at the show in which 130 volunteers jumped safely from a two-story scaffolding”
• “A potential client who had seen an ABC news report on the Exit Traveler attended the Invention Convention just to meet Denzien. He placed a half-million dollar order.”

The chapter calls Rick Denzien the inventor (“Inventor Rick Denzien invented a device that en[a]bles people to safely …”). The patents name Abram P. van der Neer and Harm W. Holman as the inventors of the lowering device (see Patents). The year of the Invention Convention show is not given in the snippets.

More Future Stuff: Over 250 Inventions That Will Change Your Life by 2001

Malcolm Abrams and Harriet Bernstein, Penguin, 1991 (ISBN 0-14-014523-0), pp. 241–242. Internet Archive record (lending-library copy; not viewable in full).

Snippets (short full-text search excerpts, not full pages):

• “This product, the Exit Traveler, is expensive. But for people who take trips often, …”
• “… Netherlands and West Germany, where the Exit Traveler passed tests with flying colors, according to Rick Denzien, president of R.A.W. Rescue Products in Ambler, Pennsylvania.”
• “price: $398”

The Complete Guide to Home Security

David Alan Wacker, Betterway Publications, 1990 (ISBN 1-55870-163-X), p. 83 and resource list. Internet Archive record (lending-library copy; not viewable in full).

Snippets (short full-text search excerpts, not full pages):

• “… new portable fire escape system called the Exit Traveler from R.A.W. Rescue Products Inc. is on the market …”
• “… 36-floor model will be available soon. The Exit Traveler is designed to lower a person automatically …”
• “… makes it a perfect travel companion. The 12-floor Exit Traveler retails for about $450 …”

Reported, but not yet found

According to Marketing Masters (1990), ABC, NBC, MTV, Business Week and the Los Angeles Times all covered the Exit Traveler demonstrations at the Invention Convention. Business Week’s item is above. The Los Angeles Times article and the ABC, NBC and MTV reports have not been found in the online archives searched. They are listed here as reported in Marketing Masters (1990).

Records

• Trademark, Taiwan: the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office’s open data lists a mark “易梯及圖EXIT TRAVELER,” application no. 079007167 filed February 22, 1990, registration no. 00509016 granted December 16, 1990 (term to December 15, 2000), for fire-fighting equipment and building escape devices, owned by a Taipei company, 華旅國際企業股份有限公司. Its connection to R.A.W. is not stated in the record.
• Trademark, United States: the 1990 R.A.W. advertisement shows an ® mark after “Exit Traveler.” A U.S. registration record has not yet been found.

Search notes: the Internet Archive, Delpher, Google Patents, the AFSA journal archive and the Los Angeles Times’ online archive were searched in October 2026. Trove (Australia) and Papers Past (New Zealand) could not be reached from our search tools. No catalog or store listing from Hammacher Schlemmer, and no Diners Club magazine item, has been found yet. Copyright in each item remains with its publisher.