Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1895 — A Telescople Lifeboat. [ARTICLE]

A Telescople Lifeboat.

Robert Chambers, Dumbarton, the inventor of a well known and widely adopted form of collapsible lifeboat, is in* traducing u new type, which lie calls tin ‘ ‘telescopic” lifeboat. The distinctive feature of the boat is that it has a movable keel extending for two-thirds the length of the craft. It is formed of a steel plate, and cau be lowered by rack and pinion to a depth of /> feet in the case of a 40-foot bout. To the bottom edge of this keel there is secured liy angle irons a flat plate, equal in width to one-third the beams. Thus the keel takes the form of au inverted T, being 5 feet or 0 feel deep, witli flanges of 2 feet. When in normal position these flanges lie close up against tlie boat, but when in a sea the keel is lowered, the idea being that the weight of water on either flange prevent the boat capsizing in any condition. Again, cavities arc made in the bottom of the boat, in wbicli there are wheels mounted on a bearing connected to a wornffthuft, so that when running ashore the wheels can be lowered by the turning of the shaft. This obviates the necessity for a carriage, which requires the maneuvering of tlie boat into an exact position, not always easy of attainment in the wash of a heavy sea.