SPECIAL LIFE BELTS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 139, 16 June 1930, Page 9

SPECIAL LIFE BELTS

According to Mr. Harold Pemberton, writing in the "Daily Express," Sir Henry Segrave and the other members of the crew of "Miss England II." were equipped with lifebelts, reinforced with steel straps, in attempting the world's speed record on water. "If by any chance we were flung out of the boat when she was travelling flat out on the 100-mile-an-hour mark," said Sir Henry, "the water would be as hard as rock. Hence we are going to use steel coats as a safeguard. They should act as a spring and take the first shock. "With, the ordinary inflated or cork belts we should probably break every bone in our bodies." "Miss England II." was experimental and full of new theories in marine engineering. Sir Henry frankly confessed that he has only the vaguest knowledge of what would happen when he trod on the accelerator and released nearly 4000 horse-power through a tiny propeller only 15in in diameter, and with only two blades. The propeller was one of Miss England's secrets. Her designer, Mr. F. Cooper, M.1.N.A., allowed for the propeller revolving at the almost incredible underwater speed of 12,500 revolutions a minute. The propeller of "Miss England I." revolved at 6800 revolutions a minute, to the utmost astonishment of marine engineers the world over.