Sailing and Steam- Vessels. 179 



lects in the upper part of rooms, hospitals, &;c., on the prin- 

 ciple of sucking in air to the fire, as recommended by former 

 inventors, he makes no allusion to the previous suggestions on 

 the same subject. 



Dr Desaguliers' objections to the use of foul-air-extracting 

 tubes in ships, was the danger of explosion of gases collect- 

 ed in the hold when led to the fire. Notwithstanding both 

 the objections of Dr Hales and Dr Desaguliers, Mr Sutton, 

 who appears to have been a persevering man, obtained, after 

 some opposition, a patent for his plan or invention, and Dr 

 Mead, in the year 1749, published an account of it under the 

 following title : " A New Method of Extracting Foul Air from 

 Ships, in two letters to a friend, by Samuel Sutton ; to which 

 is annexed, two relations given thereof to the Eoyal Society, 

 by Dr Mead and Mr Watson, F.R.S , and a discourse on the 

 Scurvy, by Dr Mead" (London, 8vo.) In this publication, 

 Dr Mead expresses himself in the strongest terms in favour of 

 the plan. He says it is '* an invention which does honour to 

 our nation, and will in time be found of more public benefit 

 than any discovery in mechanics which has been produced for 

 these hundred years," — that it can be applied to many other 

 purposes of life, and deplores the evil spirit manifested to Mr 

 Sutton's plan, and remarks that the preface was written before 

 Mr Sutton " brought him the agreeable news that the Lords 

 of the Admiralty had just given orders to provide all the ships 

 of H. M. navy with this useful machine." Mr Sutton, in his 

 letter, explains how, in 1739, his attention was first called to 

 the subject from the sailors on board the fleet at Spithead 

 being dangerously ill for want of fresh air ; and after some 

 experiments which he made to try the effect of currents of 

 rarified air with common chimneys, he brought his plan under 

 the notice of the Admiralty, and at length succeeded in get- 

 ting it tried.* From the report of experiments on board 

 H. M. S. Norwich, on a voyage to the coast of Africa, it 

 did not in all respects come up to expectation. After peti- 



* He mentions the names of Sir Charles Wager and Sir Jacob Ackworth, 

 Surveyor of the Navy, and Admiral Boscawen, as having taken some interest in 

 his plan. 



