A LIFE-SAVING KITE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 4548, 25 May 1889, Page 3

A LIFE-SAVING KITE.

TOL.I .-» ...... Messrs M'Carvie and Miller, of Arrowtown, hafo gent a circular letter to the British Admiralty and twenty-seven Government! colling attention to the simple life-saving apparatus suggested by the recent disaster at Samoa. They say : — " The apparatus c >niisU of a kifo fo be flown above the wrec]j, wjlh a line strong dfiQugh tq b,aul a* (ops °ashor.e from the vessel m order t° Pstatjlish pommunication -with the shore. For this purpose thsro should bo a vnrioly of kite?, some made of calico, and gome of duck, and of such sizes as to suit the force of the wind. The kites should be water-proofed with self-luminous paint, no p.s to bo visible m the dark, and carry a small grapnel, attached to the tail of the kite by a wiro and m the arms of tho grapnel some highly inflammable substance should bo placed, to bo lit when required to attract notice. A pocket also may be provided m the kite to take aihore any message or instruction from those aboard the wreck. Tho grapnel is to gor - t a the uuvpose yi gel ting a hole! on the ground after the kite is lowered, wbioh is to bo effected when it ii /airly orrr the shore by sending up weighed 'messengers.' Tho kite is, porhaps best fljwn from a reel or bobbin provided with a brake, and the line 1 should havo distance marks ot, soy, every 103 feet j the wh'oto apparatus to bo so constructed that it may bo screwed to the bulwarks or' any other poiu( qf Vantage on board,, qnd s.bo\ ( ld fie Qlftaja ready for us 6 ot i> moment's notice. We reiPßlitiroly claim for our suggestion that it Is life-saving without jeopardising life, and thus supersedes tho life-boat j that it is simple m its application, as any man can fly a kite ; that tho whole apparatus ii inexpensive, even if orory vesßel wore to carry twenty such kites ; that m case of a wreck happening off a precipitous coast a kits May be made to top moijt of tl\e cljffn met with j that aiioulrl t> vessel atrand od an uninhabited coait a man from on board might, under favourable clrcuui9tancos, got afthorw by means of a lifebuoy attached to a kite ; that it is much more certain to got a kito ashore from the vessel than a rookotfrom ■hore aboard tho vessel, and it may be added that wrecks occur only on a lee shore, the wind m eu"h cusc? alwaye standing in|i^tl.".