TOP VIEW OP A TWO-CYLINDER RAFT.

SIDE VIEW SHOWING STRINGER PIECES, ETC.

SECTIONAL VIEW, CUT TRANSVEBBELT, OF A THREE-CYLINDER RAFT.

THE recent passage across the Atlantic Ocean, from New York to Southampton, of an American life-raft with only three men on board to navigate it, has naturally excited much interest in this country, and vast numbers of persons have Visited the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, since it was placed there, to see it and its daring crew. It is, in truth, a misnomer to call such a vessel a raft, seeing that it possesses all the properties of a safe and efficient bout. A more suitable term would be " the American Tubular Life-boat;" it being composed of either two or three long tubes with a wooden framework of gunwales and seats or thwarts placed upon them.

The tubular: Life-boat or raft, Nonpareil, the one which crossed lie Atlantic, is composed of three inflated tubes, each 2,5 feet long by 2J feet «f diameter, ranged side by side, and placed about 2J feet apart from each other, the extreme width of the vessel being 13 feet. Such a boat is equally safe with two tubes only, but the third, intermediate* tube, gives it one-third more buoyancy,. and would, therefore, enable it to carry a larger number of persons. The principle is not a new one, double boats having been in use In the East from a remote period. The NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION has also, for several years, had two life-boats each formed of ; two long metallic cylinders, on a plan -invented by the late HENRY RICHARDSON, Esq., of Aber Hirnant, near Bala, in North Wales, which boats possess undoubted valuable properties, not only being insubmergible, and possessing very great stability, but providing for the instantaneous discharge of all water breaking over them, and affording great confidence to their crews.

The American tubular life-boat has, however, another property of the utmost value, which has not been sufficiently noticed in the published descriptions of it, and the possession of which property induces us now to draw special attention to it: we allude to its collapsibility, go that it can be folded up and stowed away in a small compass in any convenient place on shipboard.

Some means to enable crowded passenger vessels and troop ships to carry a sufficient number of boats to receive into them the whole of their passengers and crews, has long been acknowledged to be a pressing want. There are, doubtless, few of our readers who are not able to call to mind some of the many terrible catastrophes which, from time to time, have excited their sympathies, and have carried grief into very many households in our land, when disaster has happened to large passenger .ships, and on which occasions the general rule has been for the boats to be swamped or upset one after another, either in the act of lowering or alongside, from being overfilled with excited and panic-stricken people. Indeed, one of the chief causes of loss of life on those* terrible occasions has been panic; and what more natural than that there should be panic when it is well known to all on board of a crowded emigrant or other passenger' ship that the whole of the boats of the ship can only convey a portion of those on board her ? Each is then in fear of being one of those doomed to be left; behind, and hence numbers at once rash to the boats only to precipitate their destruction. / Indeed it seems singular that in this insular and thickly-peopled country, with no egress for its,surplus population but the sea, whose special mission would appear to have been to people the waste places of the earth, no greater efforts should have been made to provide a sufficiency of boats on board passenger ships.

The difficulty of doing so has probably been hitherto deemed insurmountable, but 'we trust that our Government and emigration authorities will now reconsider the subject in connection with this new, and, as we think, admirable invention, which we believe will be found to have removed all the difficulty in the way of providing ample and safe boat accommodation on board the most crowded passenger vessels.

In illustration of the fitness of the American collapsible tabular boat to meet the want above indicated, it may be stated, that on the occasion of the trial of a two-tubed one in the Regent's Canal Dock, Limehouse, twelve months ago, it was brought through the streets of London on the roof of a common cab, from which it was thrown roughly off to the ground, and that six men, who had never seen it before, under the superintendence of the inventor's agent, inflated the tubes, and put it together, in six minutes; that it was then pitched headlong into the water from the quay wall, a height of some 12 or 14 feet; that twenty men then jumped into it and made every effort to upset it without success; and that it was then rowed quickly by four oars, and by means of an oar at the stern could be turned round almost in its own length. Half a dozen men then hauled it readily up a very steep bank, its tubes were emptied of air, and it was rolled up, being thus rapidly converted from a rigid, safe, and insubmergible boat, into a mere bundle 9 feet long, and 18 inches in diameter.

From the above description of its portability and compactness, it will be readily conceived how specially such an instrument is qualified for service in crowded passenger ships, since not only could an ample number be carried on board without inconvenience, but their safe transfer to the water could be insured from their being insubmergible, whilst, owing to that property and to their great lateral stability, the subsequent safety of those on board them would be almost certain—a practical illustration, of which has now been afforded by the safe passage of one of these boats .across the Atlantic, during which voyage it had to lie-to no less, than seven times in gales of wind.

In producing a safe and efficient inflated and collapsible beat, two difficulties had to be overcome, viz., the giving such a structure sufficient rigidity and strength, and the making it proof against fatal injury from being rent or punctured.

This has been effected, in each case, in a very ingenious manner. In the first case by dividing the gunwales in the centre, and pi voting each part at one end to the thwarts at the bow and stern, so that each halfgunwale can be turned across parallel to ohe thwarts and be rolled up with them and the tubing, on the latter being collapsed.

In the second case, liability to swamping from puncture or rending is met by the ingenious device of ah inner and outer tube, the inner and waterproof ones being much larger than the- Outer Ones, which latter give the form and shape of the tubes, and the inner ones would yield to the pressure of any sharp instrument or rock which might pass through the outer canvas cover.

» The following description, however, published in substance by the inventor, with accompanying diagrams, will make the general character and appearance of the tubular raft or boat intelligible to every one:— " This raft is composed of two or more air-tight cylinders, of suitable dimensions, encased iu cylinders of strong duck or sail canvas, and connected together by canvas Ranches, which, being connected with the outside cylinder or casing of air-cylinder, forms a complete deck surface. On the top and across these cylinders are placed a series of thwarts or planks, which are lashed at each end, and between each cylinder, by means of ropes to outside canvas cylinder.

These thwarts or planks answer the double purpose of stretchers to keep the cylinders apart, and in shape when inflated, and also as seats for passengers. Across these, at each end and lengthwise of the raft, are fastened by means of rope lashings, stringer pieces of suitable timber, which are bolted at either end to the end of thwarts, and answer for the double purpose of gunwales and for attaching rowlocks for propelling the raft. These stringer pieces are spliced in the centre in such a manner that they can be readily unlashed and swung around on the fore and after thwarts when it becomes necessary to take the raft on board ship or pack it away.

" In each of the air-cylinders is attached an air-valve which can be opened and shut at leisure; and when it becomes necessary to use the raft; an inflating bellows, which always attends the raft, is attached to each valve, and the raft is put in readiness to launch in the space of six minutes or less.

" In describing the manner of constructing this raft it would be well to state, that the object in covering the air-cylinders with canvas is to produce a life-saving raft, which has a combination of strength, durability, and cheapness, and one that can be repaired by any person either on board ship or in a foreign country, if necessary.

" We simply depend upon the air-cylinder as an air reservoir. The canvas or outer cylinder being of smaller dimensions than the inner or air-cylinder, it becomes impossible to inflate the latter to its lull extent; consequently, the entire wear and strain come upon the outer or canvas cylinders.

" When inflated, and ready for use, this raft has a buoyant capacity of 8,000 Ibs., and a deck surface for passengers of 180 square feet. And when rolled and packed for stowing away, it takes up only a space eighteen inches in diameter by eleven feet long, and weighs but about ibur hundred pounds.

"Oije of the great difficulties now experienced by our navy and merchant marine, in case of shipwreck or disaster, is the difficulty of launching their boats without swamping them, and in getting on shore and landing their passengers safely. This is completely overcome in the use of Perry's life-saving raft, as it is impossible to upset, swamp, or sink it under any circumstances, and it will land through the surf with the same degree of safety as at the dock. These 'rafts are also provided with a place for carrying provisions and water in case of shipwreck." Without endorsing the opinion of the inventor that it is impossible to upset such a craft under any circumstances, it may still l« safely affirmed that it would be very much more difficult to upset it than any ordinary boat, and that, being insubmergible, its safety is still further greatly enhanced; Possessing these invaluable properties, and also that- of great buoyancy, such boats would be admirably adapted for troop ships, not only as a means of safety in the event of accident from wreck, fire, or collision, but for landing through a surf with greater safety than even any ordinary ship's life-boat would do. They might, likewise, be readily convertible into pontoons for crossing rivers, for which purpose *hey would be specially adapted from their lightness and portability.

We heartily trust, therefore, that the invention will receive due attention from our military and naval authorities, and that they will give it an early trial.