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18 MARINE REVIEW. [November 15, COMPETITION FOR POLLACK LIFE-SAVING PRIZE. It will be remembered that the heirs in this country of Anthony Pol- lack, one of the victims of the Burgogne disaster, offered a prize of $20,000 for a device which would seem to remove, or at least minimize, any danger of loss of life at sea. The various devices offered in compe- tition had to be presented at the Paris exposition. The collection is de- scribed by the Engineer of London. They have been grouped together on the bank of the Seine, underneath the navigation palace. There are scores of inventions from England, America, Australia, Scandinavia, Ger- many, France and Switzerland. Taking, first of all, the various devices for lowering boats from ships' sides, we find the Ranking patent boat disengaging. gear, which consists essentially of two horizontal girders hinged together at the center, and fixed by a clutch, from which descends a chain, engaging in a hook at the bottom of the boat. Two other chains hang from each end of the girder by means of swivels, which are merely held in position by the curved ends of the girders. To disengage the boat the hoo. at the bottom is drawn back by a rope. The weight being thus released from the clutch, the two girders fall and the swivels slip off the ends, thus leaving the boat free. F. Hiorth of Christiana, Norway, shows models and drawings of a device in which there are very long davits hinged to the ship's side at about the water level and curving up over the upper deck. These davits fall outwards by their own weight when re- leased by a winding gear, and deposit the boat in the water. The davits are connected by netting to receive people who jump overboard, so that they can be easily gathered into the boat. The Kennedy lifeboat crane and detaching gear is formed of a straight davit terminating at its lower end in a toothed segment, so that any inclination can be given to it by a hand gear. When the boat is in the water the ropes are disengaged from clutches at each end by a lever. Another device for disengaging a boat is shown by Arthur W. Savage, of Utica, N. Y., whose system provides for the releasing of clutches at each end of the bar suspended from the davits above the boat. The automatic closing of water-tight doors is the subject of two patents. A door on Hind's system is shown by the Water- strip, which normally folds up around the end of the boat, and when in cae the fork is ie down with a heavy weight attached. Eugene Ogez of Dunkerque has devised a davit formed of vertical columns, to the top of which are hinged horizontal girders. The boat is suspended from the girders by means of pulleys. Professor W. B. Goldberg of New York hopes to obviate any risk from collision by surrounding the vessel with india-rubber buffers of 12 in. diameter, each series of buffers being con- nected horizontally by three steel cables of 2 in. diameter. John McAdams & Sons of Brooklyn, N. Y., think that prevention is better than cure, and fit vessels with shields that normally fold up against the ship's side, but expand when the chain attachment is released. Capt. Holmes of Mel- bourne, Victoria, shows a new collision mat; and H. Mariolle has a model with india-rubber bags packed away around the outside of the ship con- taining calcium carbide, so that in the event of collision water can be admitted to generate gas, thus constituting a number of balloons, which will keep the vessel afloat. This is something similar to the Levaur sys- tem. Life buoys of reindeer hair are shown by Frank H. Wilson of Brideford, North Devon, and W. C. Moller of Drammen, Norway. There seems to be special virtues in reindeer hair for life saving. Some curious devices in the shape of metal cylinders with belt attachments are shown by Hamberger & Steltzer of Berne. On land the cylinder can be used as portmanteau, and umbrellas and canes can be stuck in the belt. One of these apparatus is exhibited with an umbrella attached, which arrangement must obviously be of considerable service in prevent- ing the shipwrecked mariner from getting wet should it rain. Of life- saving belts there are any number, the most practical being the "Simplex" gear of H. Binko & Co. of 34 Leaddenhall street, London, which is in- stantly dropped by means of a tripping hook operated either mechanically or electrically. A chemical light burns on the top of the buoy as soon as it comes in contact with the water. A French inventor has devised a lifebuoy of gigantic dimensions, fitted up with beds and accommodation for a ship's crew, together with provisions for a considerable time. He does not give any indication as to where this unwieldly contrivance is to The Tashmoo on Dewey Day. tight Door Co., Limited, Cable Works, Preston, and the features of this device are the diagonal hinges which cause the door to swing to and fall into notches by its own weight. It is raised out of the notches for. open- ing by a lever. It has the advantage of great simplicity and certainty of action. In the Montgomery Moore's system the doors are controlled either by electricity or by hydraulic, pneumatic, and steam power. In the first case the door slides along between guides by means of a worm- shaft passing through a worm on the door. A rapid revolving motion is given to the shaft by a Lundell electric motor. In the other system a similar movement is given by two horizontal cylinders carrying pistons attached to the top and bottom of the door. The operation of opening and closing the doors is performed in the chart-house, so that in case of emergency all the doors are instantly closed by means of a controlling lever. This naturally entails a rather complicated system of electric wires, or air, steam, and water pipes. Another class of life-saving devices com- prise uncapsizable boats, and decks forming rafts which will float in the event of the vessel sinking. Among these is the Fairplay lifeboat, which is built up in three sections, the two end ones in the shape of hol- low watertight cylinders and cut away for the bow and stern. They are connected with the boat by swivels, and stability is given to the middle part by hollowing out the bottom in place of the keel and by building it with water tight compartment along the sides. The boat rests on deck, and the end parts being cylindrical allows of its being rolled off into the sea, but the boat itself always maintains a vertical position. In the smaller model the boats rest on metallic guides which incline overboard, but in the larger model the boat is hung from davits. Bolt's cabin is intended to float in the event of the ship sinking, and another similar device is an upper deck in the form of a raft with a number of compartments for pro- visions, etc. An unsinkable deck seat is also exhibited by Williams & Bates, 59 Shoe-lane, Holborn-circus, London. There are several ex- amples of Roper's life-saving inventions, comprising broad-beamed, flat- bottomed boats with four or five keels, and hollow up to within 2 ft. or 3 ft. of the gunwale, an upper deck forming a raft and fixed on to a girder framework by means of levers, which on being released allow of the deck sliding down to the water, and also a new system of box girder davit of semicircular form with an arm half-way up running in a horizontal guide bolted to the deck. This davit is moved forward over the ship's side by a winding gear. N. H. Borgfeldt, 221 Rodney street, Brooklyn, N. Y., aims at rendering a boat unsinkable by fixing a steel belt around outside amidships. To this belt are hinged the two ends of a fork, also of steel Copyright, 1900, by Detroit Photographic Co. be carried. There are plenty of life-saving dresses, most of them con- sisting of rubber jackets or bladders that can be blown up, and others resemble a diver's dress, such as that exhibited by the Societe Probst and L. Philippon of Geneva, who shows pictures of how people look when wearing this dress in the water. It is almost worth while being ship- wrecked in order to enjoy the luxury of assuming these unconventional attitudes. The dresses are lined inside with tablets of chocolate. The last invention that came under our notice was a cross between a battleship and a Trans-atlantic liner with the funnel astern, and carrying amidships a sailing vessel with sails all set. We did not see the name of the ex- hibitor. Perhaps he was too modest. The committee who undertook the work of judging these inventions concluded that they were unable to award the full prize, though they suggested that a part of the prize might be given for Roper's life-saving devices. So far as can be gathered, the judges believe that nothing which has yet been introduced in the shape of life-saving dresses is at all prac- tical, for the reason that during the panic which may be expected to take place at the moment of a catastrophe none of the passengers would be cool-headed enough to carry out the preparations necessary for using these dresses, even to the extent of blowing up bladders and belts. This was proved by an experiment which was carried out in the United States some time ago when belts were distributed to all the passengers, with careful instructions as to how to use them, and shortly afterwards, on an alarm being given, everyone rushed on deck without their belts. Nothing can be considered good enough for the Pollack prize unless it either renders the sinking of ships impossible or unless the life-saving devices should be automatic in action or can be instantly controlled by the cap- tain, The judges were mostly impressed by the arrangements for auto- matically closing water-tight doors, by some of the systems of float decks, and by the devices for promptly and safely releasing lifeboats. As for the decks, there would seem a danger of their being swamped or overturned by the swirl of water above a sinking ship, but it will be noticed that Roper's invention guards against this by sliding off the deck so that it can get clear of the ship before she goes down. The judges have decided to recommend the heirs of the late Mr. Pollack to keep open the prize for another year, so that i i i i i ear, experiments with new inven arried out on the Seine. ee Four-masted schooner, buildi °s ya i be launched about Sea ene sed: Bul