NO MORE DROWNING.

Patea Mail, 30 October 1880, Page 4

NO MORE DROWNING.

In the presence of a large number of gentlemen who had heee specially invited by Captain Hobson, a trial was made in the Annexe at the Royal Aquarium of the invention of the Rev. W. Cowell Brown, a Wesleyan minister of Sheffield, for preventing drowning. A chemical preparation is inserted in a portion of tho 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 tho breast ami np the back. The moment a man falls into the water the coat inflates like a pillow and he cannot keep his head under the waves. An attendant put on a coat with the preparation inserted iu it. He first went under a shower-bath, where he was thoroughly drenched, to show that inflation would not take place under ordinary circumstances of a shower. Under the shower-bath the coat did not alter its proportions in any way whatever. Tho attendant then took a “ header ” into the water. Ho reappeared at the surface almost immediately, and the coat promptly inflated. Entering a part of the bath deep enough to take him up to tire eyes, he could not touch the bottom at all, and the water scarcely reached his chin. By a struggle he dived partially beneath the surface, but come np again instantly. 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 ho could possibly endure the exposure. For 45 or 50 hours its would be effective for it purpose.