A NEW LIFE-SAYING APPARATUS.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 168, 29 October 1880, Page 3

A NEW LIFE-SAYING APPARATUS.

(London Flyura, July 2.) Is the presence of a large number of gentlemen who had been specially invited by Captain Hobson, a trial was made in the Annexe of the Royal Aquarium of the invention of the Rev. W. Cowell Brown, a Wesleyan minister of Sheffield, for lessening the number of deaths by drowning. A chemical preparation is inserted in a portion of the coat, waistcoat, or dress. It does not add to the weight or in any way alter the appearance of the garment. The preparation is inserted between the lining and the cloth ; in the case of a coat, it is placed on each side of the breast and up the hack. The moment a man falls in the water the coat inflates, and he cannot keep liis head under the waves. Among tlie experiments successfully attempted at a previous exhibition at Sheffield, two small piece of linen, with part of the preparation inserted between the folds, were thrown into the water. The linen instantly inflated so as to form a miniature cushion and floated about the hath. An attendant then put on a coat, with the preparation inserted in it. He first went under a shower-bath, where lie was thoroughly drenched, to show that inflation would not take under ordinary circumstances of a shower. Under the shower-bath the coat did not alter its proportions in any way whatever. The attendant then took a header into the water. He reappeared at the surface almost immediately, and tlie coat promptly inflated. Entering a part of the bath deep enough to take him up to the eyes, lie could not touch the bottom at all, and the water scarcely reached liis chin. By a struggle he dived partially beneath the surface, but came up again instantly. Divesting himself of the garment it floated about the bath until it was taken out. The inventor also attached a piece of lead weighing three pounds to liis appliance, which presents the appearance of a short, light sleeve, or lining, and threw it into the water. The sleeve on touching the water, instantly expanded like a small bolster, and floated about the bath well out of the water, sustaining the lead weight until both were fished out. Mearly all these experiments and many more of an extraordinary nature were performed at the Westminster Aquarium on Thursday. The inventor states that his apparatus, which would simply form an additional lining inserted in a portion of the garment, would sustain a person in the water as long as he could possibly endure the exposure. For 40 or 50 hours it would be effective for its purpose. In the event of a person losing consciousness, the lining in the back would form a sort of bed, and that in the breast a pair of pillows, against which liis head would rest.