The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1897-04-17
THE SHINING LIFE LINE.



The life saving service of the United
States government is now experiment.
Ing with decidedly new idea in lifelines,
the results of which are proving highly
important II is among theprobabillties OF
the near future that the crews of vessels
wrecked within the range of the Ifesav-
ing stations will be able to see the line
shot to them from the mortar from the
time It starts on its career until II reach
es them.
/ This marked addition to the chances of
saving the lives of shipwrecked seamen is
the invention of Reuben H. PIass of
Brooklyn, N. Y. Mr. Plass will be remem-
bered as the inventor of system of mari
time ocean buoys, which it was intended
| should form chain of Communication by
means of cable and telephone between
America and Europe.
In spite of the magnificent work of the
l..esavinG corps of the government, and
| regardless of the apparatus for the rem
dering of aid to the shipwrecked which is
at their command, many a life has been
lost by the inability of the persons who
are clinging to a wreck to see the line
| shot at them from the shore, or. If 1t
reached the rigging, to tell Just where it
might be seized upon. AS, in such cases,
| minutes means lives, the inability to see
| and grasp the lifeline without the delay
Of a second has lessened the population Of
the earth by several in many, many in.
| stances.
The idea which Mr. Plass has success
fully evolved is to provide a lifeline which
emits phosphorescent light of sufficient
luminosity to be visible for a long dis
lance Immediately it leaves the mortar's
mouth and is shot through the gale and
across the waves to the wreck In the
past if it happened to be daylight when
the lifesavers. were at work, they could,
by means Of their glasses, tell whether or
no they had landed lifeline aboard the
wreck. 1t unfortunately happens though
that themajority of wrecks occur at night
and therefore a luminous lifeline becomes
an invention of the first Importance. By
Its use the lifesaver can tell just exactly
what has happened to the line. There
need be no more uncertainty.
Mr.. Plass is more than confident thai
the final results of the experiments with
his invention will be the adoption of the
luminous lifeline by the government. He
Is a very practical sort of a man and not
not warranted by facts. THE idea of the
luminous lifeline was suggested to me-"
said Mr.. Plass when questioned regarding
the matter, "by reading an account of the
wreck of the bark Mason on the reefs of
Cape Cod a few years ago. In this case,
the lifesavers shot line out to the wreck
but could not tell for a long time, in fact
not till daylight, whether the line had
reached the bark or not. When daylight
came to show how the wreck had stood
the beating and the surging Of the waves,
the mcn who composed the crew were
seen noZcn in the rigging, while the line
which meant life to them all lay within
their reach. They had not seen it. They
had been unable to find it at all.
1T seemed a great pity to me then that
such thing as that should be and the
thought came why could not a line be so
constructed that 1t would be luminous |
Then there never need be anything like |
the loss of life on the Mason for a similar
cause. The theory was admirable, I was |
firmly convinced, and ought to be carried |
out. But just how to do this was poser |
OF course phosphorus must of necessity |
be a prominent factor in any such inven-
ton. The principal thing to find out was |
how to make phosphorus stay on a cable. |
Then again, the line in the process of be- |
ing fired from the mortar and the chatting |
1t receives in the rigging of a wreck would |
be apt to ignite the phosphorus. Phos- |
phorus takes fire at a few degrees above |
the temperature of the human body and it |
would only be the natural result of the |
friction caused by paying out the cable |
rapidly to make the line ignite.
We'll, I worked along this line for a
long while but finally I managed to make |
combination of chemicals with phos-
phorus which 1 believe has entirely solv-
ed the problem. The exact figures at which |
the solution of phosphorus the line is
coated with will ignite are ia degrees
while the temperature of the body is 9S de-
grees. Sumner I. Kimball, general SUI
perintendent of the United States lifesav-
ing service has been making a thorough |
test of my invention. He is not quite
ready yet to give the result of his investi-
cations, but 1 am not feeling at all ner-
vous because of anticipating that my in
vention viii not be recommended to the |
government for adoption.
Persons who have never lived along the |
coast or in the vicinity of the shores of the |