WILL STAKE HIS LIFE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 720, 20 July 1929, Page 26

WILL STAKE HIS LIFE

SEA-DOGS FAITH IN INVENTION

Living in one small room of a drab house in North London is a 64-year-old man whose only ambition is to see his invention for life-saving at sea adopted, and who is himself prepared to demonstrate its utility by taking the first risks with it.

Simply explained, his invention is a form of unsinkable tank which will always let in air while excluding water, is capable of holding up to 150 people. and could be fixed to a. ship as a spare cabin and easily detached in a few minutes. Mr. R. B. Parsons, who lives in Ecclesbourne Road, Islington N., is so confident of the efliciency of his invention that he said to a. representative of “The Sunday News”:— “My object is to obtain help toward the building of a large model, then to get a ship to take the tank, with me inside, into the North Sea and cast me adrift for an indefinite period in order to test my claims solely at my own risk. North Sea Perils “From the age of 13 I lived and Worked in fishing vessels for about 20 years in the North Sea. I know something of its perils; that is why my greatest ambition has always been to perfect a. really efficient means of saving life at sea. My claim is that this tank, with its secret air shaft, will survive where an open boat cannot. It would ensure a maximum of comfort for those inside, and would carry food, water, medical necessities and even wireless. It could be submerged for a long time and still water would not enter, but the shaft would always provide air. “I am not a crank, but this is such a new departure from the ordinary lifeboat that people look askance at it. A well-known professor once told me I was living a thousand years before my time. and likened me to Jules Verne.

“The position now is that I have put my invention before the Board of Trade, many or the biggest ship owners and ship builders, and they all refer to each other. “The Board of Trade in one letter said their duty was to see that ships had lifesaving apparatus, but that they had no funds for developing inVentions and could only consider the appliance if it was brought forward by a ship owner as part of a ship’s complement. The ship-builders refer me to the ship owners; and the conclusion I have arrived at is that the onus rests with the ship owners, but they say, ‘So long as we have on our vessels what the Board of Trade is satisfied with, why should we go fur—ther?’ ” All Money Gone Mr. Parsons has a number of other inventions to his credit, and at one time had a substantial income from them, but is now without means. “I have spent my last resources—several hundred pounds—in improv—ing my appliance since the first model I made and tested on the Thames.” he said. “I am not after the money so much as to realise my ambition to do something for humanity, and I claim that the adoption of my invention would be the means of saving 75 per cent. of lives lost at sea today.” Mr. Parsons more than once jumped overboard to the rescue of others in his seafaring days. and this is the tribute he paid to his old comrades:— “There are more acts of heroism every day in the North Sea than in any other calling I can think of. few of which are ever chronicled. Things happen among the fishing fleets which would get many a man the Victoria Cross more than once in his lifetime."