1851 Great Exhibition: Official Catalogue: Class VII.: William Bain
197. BAIN, WILLIAM, 141 High Holborn — Inventor.
A contrivance for rendering buildings fire-proof. A main-pipe, supplied with water on the high-pressure system, is carried up one corner of the building, communicating with smaller pipes running between the joists of every floor, the small hose and pipe attached to the main being always ready for use, in case of fire occurring in any part of the building.
[The mains which supply a town with water should be kept constantly full, and under such pressure that, upon opening a cock in the street, the water may be conducted by means of hose over the highest houses, and applied to any fire that may occur. Pipes or hose permanently fixed through a building, from which water may be taken at any time, would probably be advantageous.]
Machine for saving life and property from shipwreck on the coast. The model is on the scale of half an inch to the foot; it represents a platform resting on piles driven into the ground, with the machine and its accompaniments, covered with a tent, which may be closed or open when necessary. The machine is a double lift; the upper drum works a cable to tug any disabled vessel to shore; the lower drum works a constant communication with the wreck. The means of first communication is by firing a shot from the gun, attached to a line, the line being secured to the blocks which are worked by the cables of the machine; the gallery and flag-staff are for observation and signals. The table on which the machine is built may be turned to any point of the compass.
[The first apparatus for saving lives from shipwreck was invented by Captain Manby. A wooden plug, instead of an iron shot, fired from the gun has been found of advantage, as in the case of the schooner Nanteos, off Carmarthen, 23rd February, 1851, etc. By means of this simple apparatus the safety of the ship has been secured together with that of her crew.— S. C.]
Floatable life-preserving cape cloak; blue cloth cloak, braided with the emblematical design of the rose, thistle, and shamrock, and lined with quilted satin; the inner lining is composed of pieces of cork, so arranged that when in the water it forms a floating body of great buoyancy by which the wearer is preserved on the surface.