- Prospectus of a new System of Beaconing. 447 
body which may come in contact with it, to pass, without any 
other effect than moving it to one side, or passing over it ; after 
which, it will instantly recover its position, aud perform its duty 
as before; so that the expense of maintenance will be trifling. 
Nor is the saving in weight (which in every case will be at least 
80 per cent.) the only benefit that results from the use of car- 
riers: the greater part of the expense of manufacture can also be 
dispensed with, straight rods linked to each other at their ends, 
answering as well as the most expensive chains. 
The advantages which will present themselves to the minds of 
those acquainted with nautical matters, as likely to result from 
this system, must be manifold beyond any thing that the author 
(who is no sailor) can conceive ; but one thing is obvious, that 
it must prove highly beneficial that these beacons (instead of 
roiling about like so many porpoises, scarcely visible,) are always 
standing erect, exhibiting a height of from six to twenty feet above 
the surface, and may be seen to intercept the line of the horizon 
at several miles distance. 
Nor is the proposed system applicable to shallows only. As 
it provides means for sustaining chains of any length, it is now 
possible to plant beacons in any seas that can be sounded. And 
it deserves particular notice, that the method which has been 
devised for sustaining chains, however heavy, proves at the same 
time, a means for rendering chains that are comparatively light, 
able alike now to perform all that duty which formerly required 
very heavy and strong chains. Nay, more: light chains can now be 
made to perform what could not be done at all formerly; for in 
proportion to the depth, so it was then necessary to increase the 
strength, not merely to enablethe chain to restrain the bucy, unne- 
cessarily bulky, &e. and improperly loaded, but even to sustain its 
own weight *. From thiscireumstance, the utmost depth that could 
be 
marine beacons. It is apt to admit water, and need tapping, easily da- 
maged by worms, subject to rapid decay, and but ill suited to be worked 
into the best form for a beacon. The patenteé has adopted iron, as a mas 
terial subject to none of these objections, being homogeneous, impervious 
to water and worms, and expanding or contracting equably in all its parts, 
when exposed to changes of temperature. Should it be objected that iron 
will soon be destroyed by rust, it is answered, The patentee has a method 
of coating his iron, so as to defend it for a great number of years; as. is 
proved by some beacons furnished by him for Government, and which have 
been for a considerable time in use at the Island of Bermuda. : 
* The common beacon, having a great weight to carry, is necessarily 
obliged to be made very bulky; and in consequence, there is a constant 
struggle between the buoy and the chain at the passing of every wave ; by 
which repeated tugging action, the block to which the other end of the 
chain is made fast, is, by innumerable and constantly repeated hitches, gra- 
dually removed from its place, sometimes.a mile or two; an. eyent that 
never 
