288 Securities against Fire, fyc. 



States, in order to communicate their knowledge to such persons 

 here, as may be depended upon, to apply it to use when required. 

 Whatever expense may be incurred in doing this, must fall short of 

 the amount of the value put in Boston, upon a single picture, not 

 yet exhibited, as well as of the sums actually paid or pledged for a 

 single statue in several great cities of the U. States. 



3. It is known that feather-beds, elastic cushions, and sometimes 

 straw, notwithstanding its combustibility, have been placed in front 

 of houses in flames, in order to receive persons who might ven- 

 ture to leap upon them from the upper apartments; but nothing of 

 this kind seems in any degree so promising, as what has been call- 

 ed a stretched sheet ; the invention of which is attributed to an Eng- 



i 



lishman of the name of Weeks ; the plan being stated to be as fol- 

 lows. A sheet is provided, in the borders of which large hoop-holes 

 are left all round ; in which holes, persons standing below (passen- 

 gers and others) place their hands, in order to grasp the sheet firmly, 

 and keep it extended. Hence, when the parly leaping down from 

 above strikes the sheet, the following results may naturally be ex- 

 pected. 1st. The holders of the sheet will drop it a little, in conse- 

 quence of their slackening their hands, as soon as the weight of the 

 descending person is felt. 2nd. The sheet is lowered farther, from 

 the stretching given to the threads of which the sheet is compos- 

 ed. 3d. The sheet suffers a new depression, when the form of its 

 surface, which at first resembles the cavity of the section of a hol- 

 low sphere turned with the open part upwards, is made to ap- 

 proach that of the horizontal section of the apex of a hollow 

 cone also turned upwards. Each of these principles adding to the 

 effect in diminishing the impulse of the descending weight, so as 

 to make it gradual, the leap becomes harmless. — Accordingly, 

 when an exhibition of the operation of this sheet was made in 

 Southwark (which is considered as a part of London,) in the pres- 

 ence of numerous spectators ; among whom were some officers of 

 the London Police who may be said to have been there, professional- 

 ly ; various persons leaped upon the sheet, one after the other, 

 from the elevated parts of a house ; and all reached the ground with- 

 out accident. 



The statement of this exhibition has probably not reached the U. 

 States upon any other than newspaper authority; but as the case is 

 recent, it may easily be inquired into; and, in the mean time, it is 



open to new experiments in this country. If the matter be substan- 



