other substance from which extracts are or may be made without the danger of burning, scorching, or singeing, such vegetable or other substance, and applicable to various other processes. Dated July 29. Laver Oliver, of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, upholder and cabinet-maker; for dining, card, pembroke, and other tables, upon an improved construction. Dated August 3. James Hall, of Mellor, in the parish of Glossop, Derbyshire, weaver; for an improvement to the loom, whereby a new and cheap method of perpetually taking away the articles woven therein, as they are woven, is effected. Dated August 3. Francis Godbold, of Cravenstreet, Westminster, dice-maker; for new invented dice. Dated August 3. John Edwards, of Vine-street, Lambeth, Surry, engineer; for improvements in distilling, rectifying, and dying, whereby the same will be considerably accelerated, and the consumption of fuel will be materially reduced. Dated August 3. Bryan Donkin, of Dartford, Kent, mill-wright; for a mode of producing a rotatory motion applicable to useful purposes. Dated Au gust 3. Michael Logan, of Paradise-street, in the parish of St. Mary, Rotherhithe, Surry, engineer; for a conservative lock for the use of inland or canal navigation. Dated August 5. Cathcart Dempster, of St. Andrew's, North Britain, gent. for improvements in the manufacture of canvas or strong cloths, of vegetable Dated materials, for sails, tents, packages, and other useful purposes. August 30. Chester Gould, of Red Lion-street, Clerkenwell, Middlesex, gent.; for an hydrometer on a new principle, for the purpose of ascertaining the strength of spirits, and determining the specific gravity of fluids. Dated September 3. John Isaac Hawkins, late of Bordenton, in the United States of America, now residing in King-street, Clerkenwell,* Middlesex, Merchant; for machinery and methods for writing, painting, drawing, ruling lines, and other things; and for applying part of the aforesaid machinery to other purposes. Dated September 24. Robert Ransome, of Ipswich, Suffolk, iron-founder, being one of the people called Quakers; for a method of making and tempering cast-iron plough shares, and other articles of cast-iron for agricultural uses. Dated September 24. Robert Atkins, of Fenchurchstreet, in the city of London, mathematical instrument maker; for improvements in the construction of hydrometers, for ascertaining the strength of spirituous liquors; and a sliding rule of correction for temperature to the hydrometer, and various improvements thereof. Dated October 31. Edward Thomason, of Birmingham, in the county of Warwick, button and toy-manufacturer; for a new mode of making hearthbrushes. Dated October 31. Booth Hodgetts, of Dudley, in the county of Worcester, nail-ironmonger; for machinery for rolling iron for *We are requested to state that Mr. Hawkins has since removed to No. 21 Pall Mall, where he exhibits the above invention. for shanks, and for forming the same into shanks for nails. Dated No vember 8. Richard Younger, of Pittman'sbuildings, Old-street, in the county of Middlesex, gent. ; for an improved method of extracting worts from malt, barley, and other grains and substances. Dated November 12. William Freemantle, of Bunhillrow, in the parish of St. Luke, Oldstreet, in the county of Middlesex, watchmaker; for improvements in the construction of steam engines. Dated November 17. James Bevans, of Castle-street, City-road, in the county of Middlesex, carpenter, being one of the society of the people called Quakers; for methods of applying machinery for the purposes of more expeditiously striking or sticking mouldings, and for rabbetting, ploughing, or grooving, fluting, and excavating wood, in every manner, now usually performed by any kind of plane. Dated November 19. Lancaster, tanner, and Thomas Southworth, of Houghton, afore. said cotton-manufacturer; for their new-invented mode of heating such pans, vats, cisterns, and other vessels, as are required to be heated by fire, and used for working steamengines, and in the businesses of calico-printer, dyer, brewer, papermaker, bleacher, salt-maker, tanner, and other such like trades; by which invention much expence will be saved, not only in the fuel to be used in the heating of such vessels, but also in constructing the vessels themselves. Dated December 31. Particulars relative to the Construction of, and Benefits received from, sundry Life Boats, built by Mr. Henry Greathead, or under his Direction, in and since the Year 1789. Account of the South Shields Life Boat. ROM the declaration of sir George Penton, of New-street-Cuthbert Heron, bart. of South square, in the city of London, brassfounder; for an improvement on lamps, commonly called Argand's lamps. Dated November 19. James Sturman Scarles, of Little Alie street, Goodman's-fields, in the parish of St. Mary, Whitechapel, in the county of Middlesex, gunmaker, for an improvement or improvements to be applied to any kind of fire-arms or defensive instruments. Dated December 3. Charles Wyatt, of New Bridgestreet, in the city of London, merchant; for a new-invented process of purifying ardent spirits. Dated December 21. Robert Cross, of Quakers Brook within Houghton, in the county of Shields, it appears, that when the Adventure was wrecked in 1789, on the Herd Sands, he offered a reward for any seaman to go off to save the men's lives, which was refused; and that the greatest part of the crew of the Adventure perished within 300 yards of the shore, and in sight of a multitude of spectators. The gentlemen of South Shields immediately met and offered a reward to any person who would give in a plan of a boat, which should be approved, for the preservation of men's lives. Mr. Greathead gave in a plan, which met with approbation : a committee was formed, and a subscription raised for the building of a boat a boat upon that plan. After it was built, it was with some difficulty that the sailors were induced to go off in her; but, in consequence of a reward offered, they went off, and brought the crew of a stranded vessel on shore. Since which time the boat has been readily manned, and no lives lost (except in the instances of the crew trusting to their own boats); and, in his opinion, if Mr. Greathead's boat had existed at the time of the wreck of the Adventure, the crew would have been saved. From other accounts it appears, that, in the year 1791, the crew of a brig, belonging to Sunderland, and laden from the westward, were preserved by this life-boat, the vessel at the same time breaking to pieces by the force of the sea. On January 1st, 1795, the ship Parthenius, of Newcastle, was driven on the Herd Sands, and the life boat went to her assistance, when the sea breaking over the ship, as the boat was ranging alongside, the boat was so violently shaken that her bottom was hanging loose; under these circumstances, she went three times off to the ship, without being affected by the water in her. In the latter part of the year 1796, a sloop, belonging to Mr. Brymer, from Scotland, laden with bale goods, was wrecked on the Herd Sands; the crew and passengers were taken out by the life-boat; the vessel went to pieces at the time the boat was employed, the goods were scattered on the sand, and part of them lost. In the same year, a vessel, named the Countess of Errol, was driven on the Herd Sands, and the crew sayed by the life-boat. October 15, 1797, the sloop coming to South Shields, was driven called Fruit of Friends, from Leith, on the Herd Sands. One part of the shore in the ship's-boat, was unforpassengers, in attempting to come on tunately drowned; the other part life-boat. was brought on shore safe by the He con The account of captain William the 28th Noven ber, 1797, the ship Carter, of Newcastle, states, that, on Planter, of London, was driven on shore near Tynemouth-Bar, by the violence of a gale; the life-boat from the ship, which the boat had came out, and took fifteen personą scarcely quitted before the ship went to pieces; and that without the boat rished, as the wreck came on shore they must all have inevitably pesoon after the life-boat. ceived that no boat of a common construction could have given relief at that time. The ships Gateshead, and Mary, of Newcastle, the sloop, were in the same situation Beaver, of North Shields, and a with the Planter. The crew of the Gateshead, nine in number, took to their own boat, which sunk, and seven of them were lost; the other two saved themselves by ropes thrown from the Mary. After the life-boat had landed the crew of the Planter, she went off successively to the other vessels, and brought the whole of the crews safe to shore, together with the two persons who had escaped from the boat of the Gateshead. Mr. Carter adds, that he has seen other vessels, at different times, and the life-boat go to the assistance of she ever succeeded in bringing the crews safe to shore; that he had several times observed her colae on shore full of water, and always safe. 3 H Account The Northumberland life-boat, so called from being built at the expence of his grace the duke of Northumberland, and presented by him to North Shields, was first employed in November, 1798, when she went off to the ship Edinburgh, of Kincardine, which was seen to go upon the Herd Sands, about a mile and a half from the shore. Ralph Hillery, one of the seamen who went out in the life. boat to her assistance, relates that she was brought to an anchor before the life-boat got to her; that the ship continued to strike the ground so heavily, that she could not have held together ten minutes longer, had not the life-boat arrived; they made her cut her cable, and then took seven men out of her, and brought them on shore; that the sea was, at that time, so monstrously high, that no other boat whatever could have lived in it. He stated, that in the event of the life-boat filling, she would continue upright and would not founder, as boats of common construction do; that he has seen her go off scores of times, and never saw her fail in bringing off such of the crews as staid by their ships. It also saved (as appears from other accounts) the crew of the brig Clio, of Sunderland, when she struck upon the rocks, called the Black Middens, on the north side of the entrance of Tynemouth ha ven. October 25, 1799, the ship Quintillian, from St. Petersburgh, drove on the Herd Sands, from the force of the sea-wind at N. E. knocked her rudder off, and was much da maged; but the crew were brought on shore by the life-boat. The great utility of this life-boat is also confirmed by many other recent cir cumstances: One among which is that of the ship Sally, of Sunderland, which, in taking the harbour of Tynemouth, on December 25, 1801, at night, struck on the bar: the crew were brought on shore by the life-boat, but the ship was driven among the rocks. On the 22d of January, 1802, in a heavy gale of wind from the N. N. W. the ship Thomas and Alice, in attempting the harbour of South Shields, was driven on the Herd Sand: the Northumberland life. boat went to her assistance; took, as was supposed, all the people out, and pulled away from the ship to make the harbour, when they were waved to return by a man who had been below deck. On taking this man out, they encountered a violent gust of wind, under the quarter of the ship; the ship, at the same time, drove among the breakers; and, entangling the boat with her, broke most of the oars on that side of the boat next the ship, and filled the boat with water. By the shock, several oars were knocked out of the hands of the rowers, and that of the steersman. In this situation, the steersman quickly replaced his oar from one of those left in the boat, and swept the boat before the sea, filled with water inside, as high as the midship gunwhale: the boat was steered, in this situation, before the wind and sea, a distance far exceeding a mile, and landed twenty-one men, including the boat's crew, without any accident but being wet. Mr. Hinderwell, of Scarborough, communicated, in a letter to Mr. Greathead, Greathead, the following account of The life-boat at Scarborough, which was built without the least deviation from the model and the plan which you sent here at my request, has even exceeded the most sanguine expectations; and I have now received experimental conviction of its great ability in cases of shipwreck, and of its perfect safety in the most agitated sea. Local prejudices will ever exist against novel inventions, however excellent may be the principles of their construction; and there were some, at this place, who disputed the performance of the life-boat, until a circumstance lately happened, which brought it to the test of experience, and removed every shadow of objection, even from the most prejudiced minds. On Monday the 2d of November, we were visited with a most tremendous storm from the eastward, and I scarcely ever remember seeing a more mountainous sea. The Aurora, of Newcastle, in approaching the harbour, was driven ashore to the southward; and, as she was in the most imminent danger, the life boat was immediately launched to her assistance. The place where the ship lay, was exposed to the whole force of the sea, and she was surrounded with broken water, which dashed over the decks with considerable violence. In such a perilous situation the life boat adventured, and proceeded through the breach of the sea, rising on the summit of the waves without shipping any water, except a little from the spray. On going upon the leequarter of the vessel, they were endangered by the main-boom, which had broken loose, and was driving about with great force. This com pelled them to go alongside, and crew; but the sea which broke over they instantly took out four of the. the decks, having nearly filled the boat with water, they were induced ing three boys, (the remainder of to put off for a moment, when seethe crew) clinging to the rigging, and in danger of perishing, they immediately returned, and took them into the boat, and brought the whole to land in safety. By means of the life-boat, built from your plan, and the exertions of the boatmen, seven their country and their friends, and men and boys were thus saved to preserved from the inevitable destruction, which otherwise awaited them. The boat was not in the least affected by the water which broke into her when alongside of men thought it rendered her more the vessel; and, indeed, the boatsteady in the sea. that it was the general opinion, that I must also add, no other boat of the common construction could have possibly performed this service; and the fishermen, though very adventurous, declared they would not have made the attempt in their own boats. We have appointed a crew of fishermen to manage the boat, under the direction of the committee; and the men are so much satisfied with confident in her safety, that they the performance of the boat, and so the most dangerous occasion. are emboldened to adventure upon the society, it appears that the By other accounts, furnished to Scarborough life-boat, on the 21st of November, 1801, was the means of saving a sloop belonging to Sunderland, and her crew, consisting of three men and boys: also, the Experiment, of London, her cargo and crew, consisting of eight men and 3 H 2 boys, |