1879*] Plan for Life-saving Stations in Mid-Ocean. 
34 1 
III. A PLAN FOR ESTABLISHING LIFE-SAVING 
AND SIGNAL STATIONS IN MID-OCEAN. 
By Isaac P. Noyes, Washington, D.C. 
\wVft S navigation increases between the Old and New 
World, the necessity for life-saving stations in mid- 
ocean is more and more felt every year. 
This has undoubtedly been a subject that in some way or 
other has presented itself to many minds ; to some as only 
a passing thought, as quickly away as it came ; to others a 
thought chiefly in connection with its seeming impractica- 
bility ; while to a few it has been much dwelt upon, in hopes 
of solving it in some way or other that would be of practical 
value to mankind, either for the saving of life or for the 
interest of science. Had this problem, in all its various 
details, been easy to solve, so as to have become a practical 
reality, something ere this would have been done toward 
accomplishing it. 
Of course the great impediment in the way is the enor- 
mous depth of water, making it, under any present known 
system, simply absurd to entertain thoughts of locating 
anything in the shape of a vessel or buoy that must neces- 
sarily require such an extensive cable to secure it in its 
place. There would be no trouble about the anchorage, or 
the vessel or buoy, in what was at the bottom or at the top, 
but simply in the connecting link between the two. 
“Simply” in this case though, like in many others, is the 
chief and almost impossible thing — that is, seemingly im- 
possible up to this date. As we read the history of the 
world we see that safety-guards and institutions for the 
history of science are more and more established as the 
world progresses, and what at one age would not have been 
demanded, or even hardly thought of, in another is looked 
upon as an indispensable necessity. What is considered as 
impracticable in one age, in another or future age is smiled 
at and done apparently without the least possible effort, as 
though it was the most easy and natural thing imaginable. 
Such a subject may prompt the question, Is it desirable 
even if practical ? and perhaps many may scout the practi- 
cability of such an idea. When we read of some fearful 
accident or wreck at sea, where some noble ship containing 
