ON a former occasion we brought to the notice of our readers Mr. LACON'S improved plan for lowering boats, intended to prevent the recurrence of such lamentable accidents and fearful loss of life as had then recently taken place in the cases of the Amazon, the Orion, and the Birkenhead.

We then expressed the opinion, that Mr. LACON'S plan was a very great improvement on the ordinary mode of lowering ships' boats. The danger of the usual method of lowering boats by tackles hooked at bow and stem, arises, 1stly, From the difficulty of lowering them uniformly, as the tacklefalls are attended by two men at a distance of many feet from each other, and neither of whom can see the boat herself during the operation. 2ndly, From the liability of one or other of the tackle-blocks to become prematurely unhooked from the boat, by the action of the sea in rough weather, which is always attended with danger, and especially if the bow-tackle should be so unhooked.

3rdly, From the tackle-blocks being ordinarily hooked to ring-bolts or slings attached to a boat's keel, below the centre of gravity; whereby she is liable to fell over on one side and throw her contents, whether gear or human beings, into the sea. Mr. LACON'S invention was intended to meet these evils, and did so. For a description of his plan we refer our readers to the sixth Number of this Journal, page 162.

Shortly after the publication of Mr. LACON'S plan, in 1852, Mr. G. F. RUSSELL, of London and of the Isle of Man, invented and publicly exhibited another plan which also successfully avoided the dangers of the ordinary method. By this plan, as, in Mr. LACON'S, the boat is lowered by one man, within the ship, who does so by attending a wheel or winch (fixed to the inner bulwarks) round which the tackle falls are passed, and which having a break attached to it, enables him to regulate the velocity of the boat's descent at pleasure. The boat can then be instantaneously disconnected from the tackles at any moment of its descent by one man within her. This'is effected by the motion of an iron rod, placed longitudinally in the boat immediately over the keel, of corresponding length to the distance between the davits or cranes to which the boat is suspended. To either end of this rod is attached one end of a short iron lever, the other end of which is furnished with a clip, which is made to grasp or to release the tackle-block, or the pendant by which the boat is hoisted up, by the simple motion of the iron rod: this motion is given to it by the action of a third lever attached to its centre, which is worked by one man within the boat, who has thus the power of disconnecting the boat from the ship, at any moment, in his own hands.

The inventor attaches some importance to the capability of detaching a boat, and letting her fall with her crew on board, from the davit ends, without her being submitted to the more tedious process of lowering.

We notice this idea merely to warn against its being earned into practice, as we think it would be attended with much danger; even if it could be insured that the weights within the boat should be so equally distributed that her equilibrium should not be disturbed, and that she should Ml into the water in the same position as when let go from the davits, yet if let go from any considerable height above the surface of the water, the concussion would be so great as to run risk of seriously injuring persons within the boat, and possibly to strain, or otherwise damage the boat herself. We were ourselves lowered in a boat, from the Queen, river steamer, fitted with Mr. RUSSELL'S apparatus, on which occasion she was detached and let fall when not more than 3 feet above the water, yet the concussion, to a person sitting on one of the thwarts, was too great to be pleasant. The experiment was in all other respects satisfactory, and the steamer was going at full speed at the time.

An improved description of crane or davit forms a portion of this apparatus, and the whole together is patented by Mr. RUSSELL, under the title of " Stowing, lowering, and disengaging apparatus for ships' boats." We are informed that it has been fitted to some of the ships of the General Screw Navigation Company, and to some of the river steamers.

A third, and a very clever invention has now recently been brought out by Mr. C.

CLIFFORD, of London, which appears admirably calculated to effect the desired end, and the success of which has 'been tested on board steamers on the Thames and elsewhere.

Mr. CLIFFORD has published a pamphlet, embellished with designs and sketches illustrative of his plan, and of the inefficiency of the ordinary modes of lowering boats, to which we beg to refer our readers for a more complete description of it.

In the preamble to the description of his plan, he observes that—" The unlashing, lowering, and disengaging are all done by one man in the boat, [whose simple weight, irrespective of any additional assistance whatever, is made to hold in equilibrium the weight or descending momentum of the boat with its entire'crew, which he has thus the power to check or control at will.

Each separate operation is the natural consequence of one act (slacking off a rope), and they are also necessary sequents, one of the other.

" The means of reducing the weight of the boat to that of the man lowering is made the means for preventing the boat canting in its descent; and the passage of the ropes by which the boat descends, through a block of an entirely novel character and action, accomplishes this end." • We will proceed to describe his invention, with the aid of one or two illustrations taken from his pamphlet.

We will premise that Mr. CLIFFORD proposes to hoist boats up with the usual description of tackles, or pendants to davits, of the ordinary kind; his apparatus being solely employed to lower boats and disengage them. The instruments used for this purpose are— 1st. Two blocks of a peculiar construction, invented by himself: these blocks have three sheaves, not placed side by side as in an ordinary three-fold block, but one below the other in a straight line, and in the same plane: vide Figs. 1 and 2.

2nd. A cylinder or barrel, turning on an axis, and fixed athwart the boat amidships, and at right angles to her sides, immediately below the central thwart. Fig. 3, a.

3rd. Two leading single blocks secured to eye-bolts in the keel, at the same distance apart as the davits are to which the boat is hoisted up. Figs. 3 and 4, h, h.

4th. A pendant or rope spliced to an eye-bolt at each davit end (similar to the usual man-ropes or life-lines, of which men retain a hold when lowered in quarter or stern boats). These ropes, for distinction, we will call lowering pendants. Figs. 3 and 4, c, d.

The blocks, /, Figs. 1 and 2, have an eyebolt on each cheek, to which short pendants are spliced, and the other ends of which, fastened to eye-bolts in the boat's side, form slings or lifts, g, Figs. 3 and 4, and prevent any possibility of the boat's canting.

The cylinder or barrel, a, Figs. 3 and 4, is furnished with a rope, secured to it at one end near the side of the boat, and which we shall call a winding-rope, its action being to regulate the revolutions of the barrel, and to wind and unwind the lowering pendants on it. This rope by the act of lowering is wound on to one end of the barrel as the lowering pendants run off from the centre.

It must be somewhat longer 'than the height of the boat from the water when hoisted up.

Hauling on it reeves the two towering pendants equally, and slacking it off, unreeves them alike by allowing the barrel to turn, insuring not only a descent on an even keel, but the release of each end of the boat at the same moment.

The striking feature of this invention is the block /, which has this peculiarity, that when a rope is rove between the upper and middle, and the middle and lower sheaves, it will pass freely between them, and round the centre sheave when slack, but will nip all the sheaves when tightened (without chafing the rope), thereby enabling a person having control of the rope to have perfect command over any weight either attached to the rope if .the block be fixed, or attached to the block if the rope be fixed, and the block allowed to traverse on it, which latter is the case in the operation of lowering a boat on Mr. CLIFFORD'S plan. The resistance of this block to the free passage of the rope through it (or, in other words, its power) is regulated by the relative positions of the sheaves to each other and the space between them, greater space giving freer action to the passage of the rope, but less power, consequently.

Now, while it is required in lowering ships' boats to obtain such power as will enable one man lowering by the winding rope to have perfect control over the descending weight of the boat, it is of equal importance that all resistance to the free run of the lowering pendants should cease with the necessity for it; and both these important ends are insured by the block, on the proportions of those given in Figs. 1 and 2.

The. mode of proceeding is as follows:— When the boat is hoisted up, reeve the lowering pendants c and d through the blocks /, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4, then through the leading blocks h, and lastly, having, by revolving the barrel a, wound up on it the winding-line 6, Figs. 3 and 4, point the extreme ends of the lowering pendants through a hole or holes made for the purpose through the centre of the barrel. By hauling on the winding-rope b, the barrel then revolves and winds equally on it the lowering pendants, in the same manner as in winding up a common humming-top. The end of the winding-rope is then led through a hole in the thwart, immediately above it, where it is made fast to a cleat. The ordinary tackles, by which the boat has been hoisted up, being next slacked up and unhooked from her, she remains suspended by the lowering pendants, and is at the sole command of any person attending the winding-rope. By slacking up that rope, the barrel revolves and unwinds the lowering pendants. As the latter are thus slacked up, the strain is (proportionately) taken off the sheaves of the blocks, and the blocks are drawn down the lowering pendants by the weight of the boat to which they are fastened, at a speed regulated by the man attending the winding-rope, and at whatever point of contact the boat touches the water; letting go the winding-rope releases it, as the ends of the pendants not being fastened to the barrel, but merely, put into a hole in it, unreeve themselves. Thus is secured, by one act, the lowering the boat steadily, in an upright position, at any speed desirable, and, what is of still more importance, her detachment from both lowering pendants at the same moment.

When fitted to a stern boat, Mr. CLIFFORD proposes that the lowering pendant at the boat's bow should be somewhat longer than that at the stern, so that the latter becoming first unwound, and the revolution of the barrel stopped, by the man lowering holding on the winding-rope, the boat would immediately swing round with her head to the direction in which the ship was going, and the boat could be safely towed by the bow lowering pendant, instead of being detached instantaneously broadside on to the direction of the ship's motion, which might be attended with danger if she were going at all rapidly through the water.

An important distinction between the three inventions to which we have alluded is deserving of notice. In LACON'S plan, the boat is both lowered and disconnected by a man on board the ship, the lowering chains falling down into the boat. In RUSSELL'S plan, the boat is lowered by a man in the ship, but disconnected by another in the boat herself. Whilst in CLIFFORD'S plan, both the lowering and disconnecting are entirely in the hands of a man in the boat. Opinion will doubtless be divided as to the relative advantages of these modes. On the whole, we consider it is preferable that the lowering and disconnecting should be in the hands of a man in the boat; there are, however, arguments on both sides, but our space will not admit of our discussing them.

Of the plans above named the last is, doubtless, by far the least expensive. The fixing the barrel or roller (a round spar of 3 or 4 inches diameter) under the seat, the blocks, and the cleat on the seat, is all the fitting required, which any ship's carpenter might easily accomplish who understood the mode of working, and which any sailor would readily comprehend.

Mr. CLIFFORD has also introduced, in connection with his plan, self-releasing gripes or lashings, so as to place the whole operation of disconnecting the boat from the ship in the hands of one person: a description of them will be found in'his pamphlet;* as also of a simple kind of plug that is never out of its place, on the principle of a cock with a hole through the bottom.

Mr. CLIFFORD informs us, that this is one only of several distinct and different ideas he has endeavoured to work out, but that he considers it superior to any of the others.

We trust that some of our steam-packet companies and owners of emigrant ships will not be slow to make trial of an invention which appears to be of so great utility, and which can be effected at so trifling an expense.

The relative advantages of the two inventions, which we have above described, can perhaps only be known by experience. Of this, however, we feel certain, that one or other of them, or some other plan equally calculated to effect the same object, ought to be adopted. Such was the opinion of the Parliamentary Committee appointed to inquire into the causes of the loss of the Amazon, in 1852; who reported as follows: " The means of lowering boats evenly, and of readily disengaging the tackles, together with plugs which are self-acting, are desiderata wanting throughout the naval service ;" yet we are now informed by Mr.

CLIFFORD, who, with others, has been encouraged by the Report above quoted to incur great expense and to devote each time to the endeavour to supply this want, that on introducing it to the authorities at the Admiralty, he has in reply been told that the Navy is not in need of any such plans. We feel bound to state that we entirely dissent from the Admiralty authori- » " How to Lower Ships' Boats." By C. Clifford. London: Simpkin & Co., and al) Book* sellers.

ties on this point. Although undoubtedly accidents of all kinds from mismanagement less frequently occur aboard men-of-war than in our merchant ships, owing to the superior discipline that is maintained on board them, the constant superintendence of intelligent officers, and the more liberal supply of all necessary stores and appurtenances; yet the serious defects of the ordinary mode of lowering boats at sea has long been apparent to every man-of-war's man, and numerous are the accidents arising therefrom which have been witnessed by most naval officers who have been any length of time in the service.

We repeat, then, that not only on board our merchant steamers and emigrant vessels, but also in our men-of-war, the adoption of an improved system of lowering the boats at sea is much required, and must sooner or later be adopted.