SAVING LIFE AT SEA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20959, 24 February 1930, Page 2

SAVING LIFE AT SEA.

EXHAUSTION PERIL AVERTED. /Following the fourth series of experiments made during the last few months with the hfe-saving suit invented by Commandante Bellom, it is now claimed °* from exhaustion alter shipwreck has been completely overcome (writes the Rome correspondent of the Daily Telegraph). The latest model is called a “ salvage suit, and has formed the subject of experiments by a new school of submarine cadets whmn Commandante Belloni has instituted at Portobenere. i This apparatus consists of a light headpiece provided with goggles and a breathing tube v which is fitted over a watertight K^A COV A erln( ? the who]e body and the W f cadet l v . ear - in 2 this suit jumped .feet a ship into the sea. and remained for, three hours m the cold water m a u from calm> it is- said that he could have stayed there for three da f bf, d bee “ *° ld do so, and had the suit been equipped with a thermos flask and compressed food with which it would normally he provided. Hoover the 8 test” 11 haS aDparentlv not been put to With the thermos flask full the apparatus weighs very little and costs about .J-p is said to have a buovanev of 6olfa in. maintaining the head and neck above water, and alsq to prevent the wearer turning upside down. It fan be put on with ease and worn without hampering the movements of the body whilst on land or aboard ship. The submarine cadets are also onm experiments with a different form °f the same invention, the object of which is to enable a man to be released trom a submarine under water. These tests are reported to h'ave been successful, and the remarkable claim is made J~ a * at m a A ep t b °i 30 feet a man has been able to leave one submarine and epter another, while at 00 feet men have been released to the surface of the water -Line apparatus is also said to be particularly useful in effecting inspection and repairs, and an eminent shipbuilding authority is credited with the statement that a single man so equipped on • ° a ,u d Pr . ,Doess Mafalda, which sank m the Atlantic Ocean two years ago with the loss of some 900 lives owing to the entry of water through the propeller shaft easing, might have prevented the tragedy which overtook her.