Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 213, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1917 — Sleep on Life Preservers. [ARTICLE]

Sleep on Life Preservers.

It must afford considerable consolation to the navy recruit to realize that the mattress on which he sleeps so comfortably at night will stand him in good stead in case of an accident to the ship. In fact the very buoyancy which makes it such a comfortable bed Is also the quality which makes it possible for it to be converted at a moment’s notice into a life preserver, says Popular Science. ' The mattresses are stuffed with kapok, a lighter-thun-cork material which is imported West Indies in bales similar to bales of cotton. It is made from the seeds and silk of a tree not unlike the cottonwood tree, but instead of being in puffy balls, the kapok is in slender threads, which when compressed make a mass that is six times more buoyant than cork. Thin layers of the kapok are inclosed in strong ticking for the raattWf&ses. Each mattress is provided with tapes long enough to tie around the body and over the shoulders.