838 'WONBERS OP ART. 
in a few years, vessels of every size, and for every extent 
of voyage, will be provided with their steam-engine, which 
will be more used, and more depended upon, than winds or 
tides. The chances of accidents are lower than those under 
most other circumstances in which men are placed in 
travelling. By land, horses kill their thousands per annum, 
open chaises their hundreds, and st:ige-coaches their scores ; 
and, by water, the uncertainty of winds has destroyed 
thousands, by prolonging the voyage, and increasing tiie 
exposure to bad weather ; but in a steam-packet, navigated 
by an engine, whose proven powers necessarily exceed what 
can be exerted during its use, or in general by such engines 
as those used on the Thames or Clyde, no accident can poS' 
cibly happen — unless, by a miracle, it were to happen, that 
a force of four pounds should overcome a resistance of 
twenty-four pounds. 
THE LIFE-BOAT 
tiiE principle of this wonderful boat appears to have been 
suggested to the inventor, Mr. Greathead, by the following 
simple fact : that if a spheroid be divided into quarters, 
each quarter is eliptical, and nearly reseihbles the half of ^ 
wooden bowl, having a curvature with projecting ends; and 
ihat this quarter being thrown into the sea, or agitated wa- 
ter, cannot be upset, or be made to lie with the bottom 
upwards. 
The length of the boat is thirty feet, and the breadth ten 
feet ; the depth from the top of the gunwale to the lower 
part of the keel is three feet three inches ; from the gnn* 
wale to tlie platform (within) two feet four inches j from 
the top of the stems (both ends being siqiilar) to the hori- 
zontal line of the bottom of the keel five feet nine inches- 
The keel is a plank of three inches thick, of a proportionate 
breadth in midships, narrowing gradually towards the end* 
to the breadth of the stems at the bottom, and Ibrming * 
great convexity downwards. The ends of the bottom sec- 
tion form that fine kind of entrance obseivable in the lower 
part of the bow of the fishing-boat called a coble, ranch 
used in the north. From tliis part to the top of the stem 
it is more elliptical, forming a considerable projection. Th« 
tides from the floorheads to the top of the gunwale flaunch 
