I'KCOMBUSTIBLE CLOTH .—CORK JACKET, 
675 
to the last, and these ground beds were laid along their houses, and 
formed one common dormitory for all the members of the family. 
The fashion continued universally among the inferior ranks of the 
Welsh within these four or five ages, and with the uncivilized part of 
the Highlanders down to our own times. And even at no great dis- 
tance from Manchester, in Buxton, within these sixty or seventy years, 
the people that repaired to the bath are all said to have slept in a 
long chamber together ; the upper part being allotted to the ladies, 
and the lower to the gentlemen, and only partitioned from each other 
by a curtain. 
Incombustible Cloth. 
This cloth is made of asbestos. — ‘‘It is an old tradition,” says 
Cronstedt, “ that in former ages they made cloth of the fibres of asbesti, 
which is said to be composed of the wood byssus ; but it is not very 
probable, since, if one may conclude from some trifles now made of it, 
such as bags, ribbons, and other things, such a dress could neither 
have an agreeable appearance, nor be of any conveniency or advantage. 
It is more probable that the Scythians dressed their dead bodies w hich 
vyere to be burned, in a cloth manufactured of this stone ; and this, 
perhaps, has occasioned the above fable.” M. Magellan confirms 
this opinion of Cronstedt, and informs us that some of the Romans 
also enclosed dead bodies in cloth of this kind. 
In 1756, or 1757, he tells us that he saw a large piece of asbestos 
cloth, found in a stone tomb with the ashes of a Roman, as appeared 
by the epitaph* It was kept, with the tomb also, if our author rightly 
remembers, in the right-hand wing of the Vatican library at Rome. 
The under-librariar, to shew that it was incombustible, lighted a 
candle, and let some drops of wax fall upon the cloth, which he set 
on fire with a candle in his presence, without any detriment to the 
cloth. Its texture was coarse, but much softer than he could have 
expected. 
Cork Jacket. 
This was an invention of ©ne Mr. Dubourg, a gentleman very fond 
of swimming, but subject to the cramp, which led him to consider of 
some method by which he might enjoy his favourite diversion with 
safety. The waistcoat is composed of four pieces of cork, two for 
the breasts and two for the back, each pretty near in length and 
breadth to the quarters of a w'aistcoat without flaps ; the whole is 
covered with coarse canvass, with two holes to put the arms through ; 
there is a space left behind the two back pieces, and the same between 
each back and breast piece, that they may fit the easier to the body. 
Thus the waistcoat is only open before, and may be fastened on the 
wearer with strings, or, if it should be thought more secure, with buckles 
and leather straps. It does not w^eigh above twelve ounces, and may 
be made up for about six shillings. Mr. Dubourg tried his waistcoat 
in the Thames, and found that it not only supported him on the water, 
but that two men could not sink him, though they used their utmost 
