L I F E-P R E 
both their advantages are not united, and both their difad- 
vantages got clear of. A boat of this conftruiftion has all 
the ftrength of one clincher-built, and can be made as 
light or lighter. It is free from the difadvantages of ir¬ 
regular outfides, and from the difficulty of repairing, 
■which in this can he performed by any common workman 
in wood, as I have found by experience. A boat built 
this way has a fair and fmooth outfide; it has all the ad¬ 
vantages of a carver-built one, at the fame time it is clear 
of the difadvantages of being loaded with unneceffary 
wood, which makes the carver-work very heavy, the lia¬ 
bility of leaks, and frequent want of caulking. There 
is one evil which both carver and clincher built boats 
have in common, that of having keel-feams, and a vacancy 
between the fand or gatboard ltreak and the upper part of 
the keel, which foon gets filled with dirt, and remains fo, 
which naturally retains moilfure, and fpeedily rots the 
wood. In this mode that evil is removed, by having the 
midffiip-plank bolted on to the keel, wide enough to come 
over each fide of the keel to clinch the flips on ; this not 
only removes the evil, but faves a great deal of trouble in 
making the rabbets in the keel, and various bevellings in 
the fand-(freaks, which mud be done by a good workman. 
Thefe boats require no larger timbers than common clin¬ 
cher-built boats, as the timbers need no greater notches; 
but wdth this difference, that thefe timbers will catch the 
flips that are rivetted over the joints of the planks each 
way, and fo the timbers and flips will brace one another, 
and add an additional ftrength ; but, in the clincher-built 
boats, the timbers catch the laps of the feams only one 
way, and confequently form no brace whatever. 
“All I need to explain further on the neutral fyftem is 
its application. It can be applied to all open boats, of 
whatever form or life, to all coal and other barges, light¬ 
ers, or any veffels ufed in rivers or canals, and alfo to all 
large cutters and luggers, which are now clincher-built. 
In the boat I have altered for government, the balance-bo¬ 
dies (if the interior of the boat was filled with water) would 
exclude as much water, between the infideof the boat and 
the outfide, as is equal to a body of water of i ton. 17 cwt. 
a qrs. which is a great deal more than the weight of men 
that will go in her, confequently they can run no rifle 
whatever of being drowned; and, even if (he had a hole 
through her bottom, (lie would always keep a fufficient 
height out of the water either for rowing or failing. 
“As the balance-fides projeft a foot beyond the refill¬ 
ing part in the water, there is that leverage on the boat 
(over a common one), and alfo the fame in the length of 
the loom of the oar that is in the infide from the gunwale 
of the boat, which allows the whole of the oar to be 
lengthened, and by that means it deferibes a larger circle 
in the water, and makes a longer pull; the oars for the go¬ 
vernment-boat I have made are lengthened from 14 to 18 
feet. The experiment of having two fpars fixed at a dif- 
tance from a boat’s gunwale, and the oars to work from 
them, has often been tried and found to anfwer; hut this 
has a great advantage over that method. There is ano¬ 
ther advantage or property which this boat has: (hecannot 
roll at fea, but always keeps a level pofition as far as the 
furface of the fea will allow ; (he may heel, but not roll, 
as the balances are always ready to catch either way, and 
the oppofite one affilts the other by its weight out of wa¬ 
ter and gravitation; neither can this boat pitch like ano¬ 
ther, for the balance-bodies being out of the water, and 
the breadth of fix feet only in the water, it can only aft 
with a gravity on the water equal to a boat of the, weight 
of fix feet, but as the refiftance of the water upwards 
equal to a boat of eight feet wide. 
“The national importance of fucli boats, I leave to the 
public to decide. I mud here obferve, that my plan con¬ 
tains two diftinCt and feparate improvements, viz. my 
neutral mode of building, and the application of the ba¬ 
lance-bodies. The firft improvement relates to the build¬ 
ing of boats, barges, See. in general. The fecond is only 
partial, and applicable to boats of peculiar delcriptions or 
you XII. No. 861, 
SERVER. 6G1 
ufes; that is, all fuch as are wanted for difpatch, fafety, 
or pleafure, or occafionally for life-boats; as there can be 
no queltion of the felf-balanced boats built upon my plan 
rowing and failing falter than other boats, and they may 
be ufed to go to lea when others cannot; but the applica¬ 
tion of the balance-bodies is not meant as a general one, 
as it is not fit for veffels of burthen that are fometimes 
light, and at others heavy laden, when the difference of 
the draught of water is coniiderable.” 
A metallic life-boat, on pneumatic and hydroffatic prin¬ 
ciples, that will neither fink or overfet, yet ferve all the 
ordinary purpofes of (flips’ boats, either for rowing or fail¬ 
ing, was tried on Monday, the 31ft of Auguft, 1812, at 
London-bridge, on the ebb-tide, during the time of the 
greateft fall, with her crew on-board, and filled with wa¬ 
ter; when die paffed through with (he greateif fafety, and 
difeharged a coniiderable portion of the water purpofely 
put into her. Thefe life-boats are deferibed as being- 
made of malleable iron, lead, and tin ; one of twenty feet 
long and fix feet wide drawing only ten inches water, 
with twenty-five perfons; and to poffels valves, that, with¬ 
out pumping or perfonal aid, difeharge all the water from 
them, which valves a£t occafionally as air-valves; they are 
hydroftatically ballalled with confined water, taken in or 
put out at pleafure—-are remarkably buoyant and lively 
in ^agitated water. This complete piece of nautical me- 
chanifm is the invention of Mr. Dodd, the engineer; and 
a patent has been taken out to fecure the difeovery. 
The filver medal of the Society of Arts, and twenty 
guineas, were voted to the Rev. James Bremner, minilter 
of Wails and Flota, Orkney Iflands, in May 1810, for a 
method of making any (hip’s boat a life-boat to preferve 
the lives of the crew in imminent danger. 
It would appear that, for feveral years, Mr. Bremner had 
turned his attention towards deviling fome effectual me¬ 
thod for faving the lives of people in cafes of (hipwreck; 
but it was not, it is believed, till the year 1798, that he 
firft fubmitted his fcheme to the confideration of any of 
the public bodies in thefe kingdoms. In the month of 
Odtober, 1800, he addreffed a letter to the Highland So¬ 
ciety of Scotland, inclofing a reprefentation on the fubjedt 
of his propofed fcheme, and which he requefted might 
be fubmitted to the confideration of the directors. Tn 
that letter he (fates that the plan had received the appro¬ 
bation of the Trinity-houfes of London and Leith, of the 
Royal Humane Society of London, and of many captains 
of merchantmen. An experiment was made in the port of 
Leith under the fuperintendance of Mr. Bremner himfelf, 
and in prefence of a committee of the directors of the fo- 
ciety. This experiment proved fatisfadfory to the com¬ 
mittee, whofe favourable report to the diredtors induced 
them to prefent Mr. Bremner with a piece of plate in tef- 
timony of their approbation of his fcheme. The follow¬ 
ing is a general description of the method of preparing a 
boat for this purpofe. 
The dimenfions of the (loop’s boat, with which the 
experiment was tried, were 14 feet in length, five feet 
four inches in width, and two feet two inches in depth. 
The only addition or previous preparation of the boat, 
was ring-bolts in the infide, and two auger-bores or 
holes in the outfide of the keel, as points of fecurity 
for fixing the neceffary feizing-ropes. The ring-bolts, 
within-fide the keel, were placed, the one forward, one- 
third from the Hem, the other aft, one-third from the (fern; 
the other two, the one diredtly at the (fern, the other at 
the ftern. The auger-bores, outfide the keel, were half 
way betwixt the rings, viz. the one betwixt the two rings 
forward, the other betwixt the two rings aft. Two empty 
liogCheads were then placed in the fore part of the boat, 
parallel and clofe to each other, and laid lengthways, fore 
and aft. Thefe were fecured in their places by palling 
the feizing-ropes round all, that is, over the gunwales 
and through the auger-bore in the keel, as alfo from the 
ring-bolt in the (fern to that next it in the keel; taking 
care, in doing this, to pafs the rope alfo through eyes on 
? F the 
