On saving the Lives of Mariners. 461 
it is exceedingly cumbersome, nor could it be considered 
as original, something similar having been described in the 
German Theatrum Machinarum. 
About the same time that the last-mentioned invention 
was brought before the public, a similar contrivance, but 
in a more objectionable shape, was also annouuced, and, if 
we rightly recollect, under the sanction of letters patent. 
Jt was in fact the same kind of girdle, but made of tinned 
iron in place of leather. It had no single requisite but that 
of buoyancy. hae. 
The merits of Mr..Greathead’s life-boat have already 
been noticed in our pages*. It hasbeen the means of 
saving many valuable lives to the community. In the year 
1802 Parliament voted £1200 to Mr. Greathead as a re- 
ward for his invention. It appears by a petition from him 
~ to the House of Commons presented during the last ses- 
sion, and from the Report of the committee to whom the 
petition was referred, that of the above sum there was con- 
sumed by the solicjtor’s bill, including fees to both houses 
of parliament, £115 8s.; that) the charges paid at the 
Treasury amounted to £67 9s. 6d.; and that Mr. G. fur- 
ther expended in the course of the necessary attendance 
of himself and witnesses before parliament the sum of 
£171 2s. 6d. In consideration of these circumstances, and 
of the general utility of the invention, the committee re- 
commended to the house to grant, as a reasonable addition 
to his former reward, the sum of £650. 
During the last session a petition from Mr. Henry Mal- 
lison, respecting an ‘invention for preserving the lives of 
seamen, was referred to x committee. It consists in applying 
about three pounds weight of cork to a man’s body by con- 
venient means, and in such a manner that the person re- 
ceives little or no impediment from it in the use of his 
limbs. Tt appeared, by the evidence laid before the commit- 
tee, to be greatly superior to the common cork jacket, Our 
limits do not permit us to give the minutes of evidence; 
but the following Report is decisive of the merits of this 
invention. 
“¢ Report from the Committee on the Petition of William 
Henry Mallison. 
** The committee, having examined the witnesses pro- 
duced before them by the petitioner Mr. Mallison, together 
with his invention itself, to save persons from drowning, 
denominated by him ‘ The Seaman’s Friend ;’ and baving 
witnessed some actual experiments made in the river 
* Philosophical Magazine, vol. xv. p, $31 
Thames 
