IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SAVING LIFE FROM DROWNING, WHICH APPARATUS MAY BE USED FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Beadon at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th March
1873.
I, GEORGE BEADON, of Creechbarrow, near Taunton, in the County of
Somerset, Captain in the Royal Navy, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SAVING LIFE FROM
DROWNING, WHICH APPARATUS MAY BE USED FOR OTHER PURPOSES," to be as
follows:-
In my improvements I combine in the same article the uses of
hammock, travelling bag, and lifeboat, over which the occupant can
exercise personal control, and I extend the same principle of construction
to making folding boats capable of being expanded to a size sufficient
to carry the crew and passengers of a ship on an emergency.
The bottom of the article consists of a metal tube of strong tin or of
galvanized sheet steel or other metal seamed, soldered, or rivetted and
well coated externally with red lead or other protecting material. This
tube is subdivided into separate tanks or compartments for containing
fresh water or for containing moveable water tanks and is arranged so

page_text: as to be easily accessible to the voyageur from the upper side thereof.
This tube constitutes the keel and it is elevated at the extremities so as
to form hollow stems which serve as water-tight safety floats.
Folding panels in frames are hinged to the keel. When I make these
articles to be used for the purpose of a combined hammock, bag, and
lifeboat I construct the panels of thin, light, tough, wood (but when they
are to be used as lifeboats I employ stronger materials) placing each
plank at right angles to the grain of the other, these open outwards to
form the sides of a boat, or close inwards when intended to be used as a
bag.
Frames of wood or metal form the gunwales of a boat or the sides of a
sleeping cot when expanded or the jaws of a carpet bag as the case
may be.
They are by preference made of battens of ash or other tough wood
steamed, bent, and heated and formed into the required shape. Some- 1
times I insert a sheet of thin metal between the laths, and all are then
strongly rivetted together. These frames are united by hinges at their
ends, and are united to the sides of the boat by any suitable means.
I connect to the frames or gunwales cork planks or blocks united
together and to the gunwale by wire or other suitable means.
I employ water-tight lockers or cases which are each provided with a
socket at the bottom, which passes over an upright pin fixed in the keel
which enables them to be turned longitudinally or at right angles to
the keel according to whether the article is required for the purpose
of forming a bag or a boat or a cot.
These lockers also constitute safety floats.
On one side of the gunwale I fix a pin and I form a corresponding
socket on the opposite side. The pin has a hole in it which admits of
a padlock whereby the two parts may be locked together.
Knee joints are attached to the gunwale frames on each side and to
wooden stem pieces to keep the frames or gunwales open, but this result
may be variously effected.
Lanyards attached to the stem pieces answer as tow ropes or
"painters," or for supports for an awning, or for suspending the cot or
hammock to the beams of a ship or to the bow of a tree, or for carrying

page_text: I cover the article with a skin of canvas prepared and made water-
tight, and I place bags for inflation between the parts of the necessary
slack canvas between the gunwales and sides of the boat.
In some cases I form holes in the bottom of the article to which I fix
elastic leggings, so that a man may when in the boat be enabled to run
down a beach and go through the surf to carry a rope to a vessel in
distress, in which case suitable cords connected to the boat are passed over
the man's shoulders to support the boat until it is floated by the water,
and I provide the man with an elastic cap or hood which passes entirely
over the head and fastens around the neck. This cap or hood has eye
pieces therein and at the top a tube, which is by preference curved
backwards, through which tube he is enabled to breathe even in a rough
surf.