, , SAVING LIVES IN CASE OF SHIPWRECK. qQ§ 



born street, Whitechapel, which preserves the leather more 

 supple* and admits it to be easier inflated than any other 

 water-proof leather. 



The leather is to be nailed on a board , and the varnish applied 

 ttpon it ; it is then to be passed into an oven several times, 

 the varnish being each time repeated, till the leather is com^ 

 pletely covered ; it is then cnt in the form of a jacket, as 

 above described, and neatly and firmly stitched ; the seams 

 and stitches are aftenvards to be perfectly secured by the 

 following black elastic varnish. 



Takeof gum asphaltum, two pounds ;arnber, halfapound; Varnish for t^.fi 

 gum benzoin, six ounces; linseed-oil, two pounds; oil of^^^"^^' 

 turpentine, eight pounds; and lamp-black, half a pound; 

 Unite them together in an earthen vessel with a gentle heat. 

 The machine, when properly made according to the draw- 

 ing and description, resembles a broad belt, or circular 

 girdle, composed of two folds of pliable leather attached 

 together, and perfft:tly impervious to water* 



IX. 



Account of Experiments made hj Lieut. John Bell, of the 

 Royal Artillery, to ascertain the Practicability of throwing 

 a Line to the Shore from a Vessel Stranded*. 



JL HE several trials made before a Comniittee of the Society -, 



*' Expetimeni 

 at Woolwich, on the 29th of August 171)1, of throwing a 



line on shore on this principlei were as follow. 



From 



* Trans, of the Society of Arts for 1807, p. 13G. A publicity having 

 been recently given to some experiments otF the eastern coasts of this 

 island, for preserving lives in cases of shipwreck, by means of a rope at- 

 tached to a shell thrown from a mortar j the Society deemed it incum- 

 bent on them to remind the public, that, so far back as the year 1792, a 

 bounty of fifty guineas was given to Mr. John Bel!, then serg-.ant, after- 

 wards lieutenant of the Royal Regiment cf Artillery, for his invention of 

 throwing a rope on shore, by nieaiis of a shell from a mortar, on board 

 the vessel in distress j the particulars of which were published in the 

 tenth volume of the Society's Transactions, jiage 204; but a descriptive 



engraving 



