Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-11-10

- ances appointed by
the Secretary of the
| Treasury, is con-
nected with me life-saving Service. and
| eonvenes, upon the call of the president,
| about once a year to consider the merits
of all boats. al paratus or methods which
| may be presented to them with a view to
| adoption in that service if found practi-
| cable This board makes public tests of the
| apparatus presented for adoption, and their
| report is embodied in the annual report of
the ife-saving service for the year in which
| the Investigations were made
Many valuable suggestions are brought
| to the attention of the board which Sc
cure for the use of the service strong lines
| and effective gear. But some of the
schemes ard apparatus offered in good
faith arc so ridiculously absurd as to re-
quire but a very short report, and the de-
cision is found impraGticabe." the board
| being good enough to "cut his throat with
a feather" in order that timid genii, with
meritorious apparatus may not be unduly
discouraged or frightened at the decision
made upon these devices, and thereby de-
tered from presenting something which
| might be of incalculabe value to human
| ity.
| One of the peculiar facts ascertained by
| the Investigations of the board is that those
| who are probably most apt to submit mod
| els and descriptions are those who know
| least about the real dangers and conse-
quent needs of a stranded or stranding YES
| sci. Some of the conceptions of the inland
residents are truly marvellous.
| Some Ingenious Schemes.
The subject easily divides itself into three
| heads: Boats for going out through the
| surf, apparatus for effecting communica-
| ton between the shore and stranded YES
sels and means for preventing standings.
The devices to be considered as coming
| first are, most naturally, those to prevent
STANDINGS, and only recently a scheme
was presented in which the government
was urged to stretch a very large cable the
entire length of the coast, some distance
from the shore, anchored with mushroom
anchors Thus, If a vessel were dragging
her anchor she would float over this cable
toward the rocks, until the hukes OF
her anchor engaged with the cable
where she would be held safe and sound
No provision is made for preventing the
| parting of her chains, however. But the
scheme of stretching large cable from
Maine to Mexico, and strinSinS thereon
| mushroom anchors, like bangles neck
| lace, will hardly meet the approval of Con-
gress.
| Another dangerous friend of the mariner
| is the man who advocates a somewhat diff
| ferent arrangement for helping drifting yes
| sells. He proposes that the government
vantageous ositions upon dangerous por-
tons of the coast. These guns are to be
| loaded, not with Shells but with folded an
chors and anchor chains. At the discharge
| of the rifle the anchor unfolds and drops
| into the sea beyond the vessel with the
| chain crossing her bows The crew are
now supposed to make the chain fast and
| 50 ride cut the storm safely by the aid of
| these additional anchors thrown her from
| shore.
Some Curious Boats.
| Another amateur submits sketches and
| drawings, minus the pretty painted model,
| however, of a boat intended to run simply
| by opening a gate valve in two large lonSi-
| tudinal tubes which open fore and aft be-
| low the water line. The valves are open
| when the beat is launched, and the water
! PUSHES into the forward intake, and passes
| cut at the stern. The water, passing out,
| pushes the boat forward, and the intake
| helps relieve the resistance on the bows so
| that the boat, of course, is propeled by the
1 water passing through these tubes. The
| boat thus goes on forever, through the surf
| most speedily, because the water is driven
| out through the stern most Iorcipiy IN a
| boisterous sea. To stop the boat the valves
| are closed
| some contrivance, although the action IS as
| hard or harder, to understand, suggests a
| Ifeboat or liferaft built upon the exact
| model of a window shutter or blind, arguing
| that the water, operating upon the STATS,
| will set them vibrating, and that this vlbra-
| ton by its action upon its own motive
| force will cause the boat to work forward
against wind and tide. Bathers at Atlantic
City a couple of summers ago WILL no
| doubt remember this inventor ana his
shutter. .
| A heart swelling with pity-it ought to be
| a woman's-for the poor drenched captain S
| wife rescued through the mountainous
| surf from a vessel fast breaking up, has
/
wagon cover, tightly fastened down to the
| gunwale as a protection from the wet. me
dear SOUL however, never stopped 10 con-
| slider the tremendous force with which the
breakers which at times urn thirty-four-
| foot lifeboat end over, would ride down that
| fragile protection, burying in its folds every
one underneath. And those members OF the
board who had served at sea Siliyered when
| they read the description of this pro
| lection" and pictured to themselves their
| exciting endeavors to extricate themselves;
| from the ruin of the death-dealing cen
| triVance suggested in love ana kindness by
an ignorant friend.
A Remarkable Device.
But of all the remarka Bile scheme5-prln-
| cipally remarkable, possibly, for the per-
| sistence with which it's inventor advocated
| its adoption-the vacuum gun should head
| the list The gun" Is cylinder some
| forty-six 20 fifty inches in diameter in
| which an air-tight piston travels with a
| two-foot stroke In the rear of the cylinder
a rack and riEion are so arranged as to
| draw this piston back, forming vacuum
in the cylinder, and in this position is
caught by a trigger. The cylinder is Sc
| cured to a foundation or bed plate, upon
which in line with the piston, a carriage is
| free to travel. This carriage supports a
| short boat of peculiar construction. Into
| this boat a single surfman places himself.
| Naturally one would think this a rather
| perilous position in which to receive the
shock of a discharge powerful enough to
cause a boat to travel a thousand yards
over the water by momentum alone, but IT
| is all nicely explained by its Elustricus in
yentor in the following quotation:
But the gentle reader must know that
| the sailor does not leave the gun in a seated
position. He lies down at the bottom of his
| canoe, with his feet toward the stern, en-
| veloped in an elastic air sack. so that he re-
| ceives no injury when the gun is discharged
| Around him is a tarpaulin cover, which
| fastens to his waist, thus making him, as it
| were, a part of his canoe, much resembling
| a Greenland fisherman. The vacuum in the
! cylinder, which gives the boat its mo-
| mentum, is caused by the pulling back of
| the piston by one turn of a rack and pinon
| At certain moment the gun is fired and
| the little boat leaps from crest to crest of
| the angry pillows, just as If conscious of it's
| actual power to brave the dangers of the