KEEPING DAMAGED VESSELS AFLOAT.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 36, 10 January 1884, Page 3

KEEPING DAMAGED VESSELS AFLOAT.

The fatal collision that occurred between the Cimbria and the Sultan has induced the German Government engineer, Herr K. Werner, of Listrup (Hanover), once more to take up Dr. Raydt’s patent for lifting weights by means of gas balloons. Herr Werner’s object is to afford the means, in case of collision or other accident of delaying the sinking of a ship for some thirty minutes, which would give ample time for preparing boats, &c. He proposes that five or six small chambers should be inserted into the side of each ship, as deep as possible under the water, and therefore very little the keel. In these chambers uninflated ‘ gas balloons would be kept, which would be connected 'by valves with small cylindrical reservoirs containing fluid carbonic acid. The valves and the doors of the chambers would be so arranged

that they could be opened by means pf mechanical apparatus on the deck. In case of a leak being sprung by collision or other accident, these valves and chambers would be opened, and iu three to five minutes the balloons would ba inflated and rise, and suffice to keep the ship afloat for the time mentioned above. Hen’ Werner believes that ten such balloons would have been able to keep the Cimbria afloat until the leak had been so far stopped that she could have reached Cuxhaven. The construction of the balloons is simple ; they are made of sail-cloth dipped in a solution of india-rubber, with an extra lining of the latter. Liquid carbonic acid is so easy to be had that Hen- Werner has no doubt that his system will be widely adopted. Ten balloons, with necessary chambers and reservoirs, the latter containing about seventy to eighty litres, would cost about £I.OOO.