NOTES ON LIFE-SAVING APPLIANCES. 

 By W. D. Forbes, Esq., Member of Councii^. 



[Read at the twentieth general meeting of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, held in 



New York, November 21 and 22, 1912.] 



The military members of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine 

 Engineers will admit that the prerequisite of any weapon of war is certainty 

 of action, that is, if any kilUng is to be done, it must be done with certainty. 

 It would seem, if this be true, only fair that in providing means for preserving 

 life, an equal amount of reliability of action should be demanded. 



It requires a catastrophe to make people realize danger and to take 

 steps to prevent its repetition, and it is somewhat strange to note that the 

 death of 1,500 people at one time in one place shocks the world, yet the same 

 number of deaths in an equal number of places at the same time awakens 

 no comment whatever. 



Enactment of new laws has followed the deliberations of the investi- 

 gating committee appointed in this lamentable case, some wise and some 

 otherwise. Yet the laws which hold come not from the deliberations of 

 august bodies ; none ever assembled could enact a law to make a man place 

 his wife with her maid in a lifeboat and smilingly step back to death on a 

 sinking ship, or bid a noble woman prefer death with her husband rather 

 than live without him. 



The greatest stress of both the American and English committees 

 seems to have been laid on the matter of lifeboats, that enough of these 

 should be provided for all on board, and in the United States, at least, the 

 construction of lifeboats has been much improved. The most noticeable 

 advance is in making the air tanks in metal boats independent of the shell 

 plating, in other words, demanding a self-contained and detachable buoyancy 

 medium. Many minor improvements have been ordered by the Rules of 

 the Board of Supervising Inspectors, but to my mind the independent 

 tank overshadows all other improvements. 



In the matter of seams for the air tanks the question of brazing or 

 riveting and soldering has been settled, allowing a folded seam, soldered, 

 of course, in the place of a riveted or welded one. The original demand 

 for gunwales of 26-foot boats and under was that they should be in one 

 piece; this has been modified and a splice is now allowed. This is a most 



