446 Prospectus of a new System of Beaconing. 
“ But (it may be objected) is it to be expected that all’ the 
nations of the earth can be brought to concur in the establish- 
ment of such a system ?’’—To this it may be answered, that, all 
having an obvious interest in stich establishment, it is not un- 
reasonable to believe, that every civilized state may be easily in- 
duced to lend its aid to the perfecting of a plan which promises 
so many benefits to the human race generally. In the mean 
time, it is consoling to hunanity to know, that, among ourselves, 
there is no want of either heads or hearts to patronize and che+ 
rish any rational plan, which has for its object the saving of the 
lives of thousands of our fellow-creatures (now sacrificed to a 
system left defective, merely because the possibility of a remedy 
was not contemplated), and adding much to the comfort and 
happiness of all who are doomed to traverse the ocean. The 
Right Honourable the Lords of the Admiralty, the Minister for 
the Foreign Department, the Brethren of the Trinity House, are 
suficient to call it into action without any foreign concurrence, 
On our own coasts there is much oceasion for it; nor can it be 
reasonably doubted, that, meeting with the countenance of our 
own Government, most of the European maritime powers, and 
also the United States, would easily be induced to lend a hearty 
€0-operation. 
tn favour of any exertion that may be made for establishing a 
general system of Beaconing; it is to be remarked, that the con- 
trivance already alluded to, of employing buoys attached to dif- 
ferent parts of a chain (see the engraving), to act as carriers, 
besides furnishing a means for planting beacons in comparatively 
deep seas, is calculated to promote the undertaking by the faci- 
lities which it affords in point of expense. The chain, as already 
stated, may be very small ; for each carrier Lears ifs own portion 
of it, and the ultimate strength wanted is only what may he re- 
guired to withstand the current (when there is one) and the 
wind; neither of which can ever exercise any power upon the 
beacon, at all to he compared with what is now required to sus- 
tain a common beacon chain*. The beacon itself has nothing 
to carry but a few links of that portion by which it is united to 
the upper carrier; and from its form, and the material of which 
it is made, (viz. metal+,) suffers any vessel or other floating 
body 
* The strength required when only the strain occasioned by wind and 
current is to be provided against, is much less than most people would 
imagine. In an experiment made at sea, off Southend, in twelve-fathom 
water in a very high wind, a piece of common jack-chain (unable to sustain 
tivo hundred weight without breaking) was found perfectly adequate to keep 
a beacon exposing six feet of height above the surface, in its place, the chain 
being borne by three carriers. 
+ Experience has shown that wood, as-a material, is but ‘ll adapted for 
marine 
