OBSERVATIONS ON LIFE-PRESERVERS. 265 



OBSERVATIONS ON LIFE-PRESERVERS. 



In addition to the circumstances that have been noticed, w^hich 

 have tended to prevent India rubber air-work from coming into 

 general use, there are others w^hich have operated against life- 

 preservers in particular. 



These articles, in whatever form they are made, are in no 

 case to be depended on as infallible life-preservers, when simply 

 inflated with air in one apartment, as they have commonly been 

 made. The self-inflating life-preservers, which are kept dis- 

 tended by braces of whalebone board, and the nautilus life- 

 preservers, are much the safest. The common kinds, also, of 

 different patterns, particularly those which are made in two or 

 more compartments, with separate tubes, (as they may now 

 be affbrded at extremely low prices,) are useful either as 

 swimming belts or life-preservers, and may save many lives, if 

 they are not too much depended on, to the neglect of other 

 means of safety ; but if they are, as many lives may be lost as 

 saved by the common kinds, filled with air only. It is well 

 known that some lives have been saved by them ; an instance, 

 however, has come to the knowledge of the writer, of the cap- 

 tain of a ship who ran the risk of leaving his vessel, depending 

 on a life-preserver, and was lost, while those who remained in 

 the vessel were saved. 



The value of an article depends chiefly upon the certainty 

 of its answering the purpose for which it is designed. When 

 it does so, and the purpose is a good one, if the price is reason- 

 able, the article is sure to come into general use. 



An instance which enforces this idea is found in the fire-proof 

 safe. Notwithstanding its expensiveness, it has, in a few years, 

 come to be considered among merchants an article of necessity ; 

 whereas, although it is twenty years since life-preservers were 

 first introduced, yet they do not come into favor as was expected, 

 nor as they would have done if they had really been what they 



