A NEW LIFE-SAVING APPARATUS.

North Otago Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2211, 2 June 1879, Page 3

A NEW LIFE-SAVING APPARATUS.

A new projectile, intended to be fired across wrecks for the purpose of establishing connection w ith the sliore, has been experimented on fately by the "War Office authorities at Shoeburyness. We take the following description of the new invention, which appears to be admirably adapted to the pin-pose it is deBi'gned for, from the New York Maritime Register : The projectile weighed, when filled ready for firing, 12J lbs. It is an elongated shell, carrying a line tightly coiled within, -which it pays out without the smallest risk of breaking as it travels through the air. It is put into the gun, as It were, the wrong or conical end first, and, leaving the muzzle, at once reverses, the front end becoming the rear end. and maintaining, due to four wings on the principle of the arrow, an accurate and distant range, with none of the wobbling and swinging and consequent loss of power so common to shot fired from existing rifled oidnnnce. In make up, the projectile is a tin tube 20in. long, 3^in. in diameter, having wings at one end and a leaden shot weighing Gibs at the other. Within the tube is a compact coil of line 17A inches long, and the diameter of the tnV>e. This line is 200 to 400 yards in length, with j, breaking strain of from 2501bs to 4001b3. The shot is attached to a second or short coil lying alongside the gun, so arranged that on the shock of the charge the line runs freely from coils. At a range of 22£ degrees, an elevation which the inventor has found by continued practice best suited to surely throw the line over any wieck with the smallest strain, to it and the projectile, the distances obtained and measured on the official rango course were 389, 448, and 507 yards ; the deviation of the shot ami the line from the target being 4 2-sths, 9 and 8 yards respectively. Three shots fired at 30 degs. and 35 degs. elevation, traversing a line of flight some 400 feet in the air, ranged 478, 489, and 386 yards, with deviations of the shot and line from target of 1, 6, and 6 yards respectively. It is in contemplation to replace the line by some five pounds of rocket composition, jr-^bhat the shot when it has Jhearly reached its greatest range of, say, 2000 yards, may have a- fresh energy imparted to it, which combination of gun and rocket powder will not unlikely give an effective and accurate ranse of about two miles. Another idea is to fill the case w ith inflammable material and compressed guncotton powder, for setting fire to and destroying villages, and for general savage ■warfare ; while a third idea, t> ithout enumerating others, which readily suggest themselves to the inventive minds of diabolical gunners, is to fill the large space now occupied by line with material somewhat after the nature of the shapnel shell, thus producing the most murderous missile ever fired from light ordnance. The cost of each projectile, including the wear and tear of line and ruiposcly light charge of from 3Jr to 4^ ounces of powder was less than Is, or less than onehalf the cost of the Boxer rocket. The last clement of cost enters materially into the question of the introduction of any new system, whether for saving life or for purpose of war ; and it may be asserted that no projectile, both from an economical and variedused standpoint, has ever entered the arena of competition with European field ordnance with such recommendations as the toy gun and projectile recently presented to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Two brass guns, perfect toys to look at, weighing 561bs and 691bs respecti rely, each 2 feet in length, were used to fire the projectile, the charge of powder varying from 3^ to 4{. ounces."

A cnntiibutov to the Sydney Morning Herald giye3 it as his opinion, find adduces figures in support of his argument that one among many causes of the commercial depression pervading the colonies arises from the banks having destroyed the business of the merchants by acting as merchants themselves. In the good old clays when we were all prospering, the squatter sent his wool home through the merchant, and the tradesman imported his goods through the same medium ; the result was that the merchant did not advance the rquatter more than the wool was worth, and did not import for the tradesman more good<? than he could conveniently consume and pay for. The banks had the business from the merchants, but it was surrounded with all the safeguards of the prudence which the merchant had exercised in making his. ad-