Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/668

650 By the aid of the weighted floating stakes represented in Fig. 10, it is practicable to rescue a person who has fallen into the water at a short distance from the quay on the shore. The slide allows the cord to be taken between two fingers, and the apparatus to be thrown like a sling. This instrument is composed of a rattan or stick of Malacca-wood, having projecting points, around which lead is melted; the whole is then surrounded with cork chips and covered with cloth and



outside with a network to protect it against friction. Other forms of life-saving apparatus are exemplified in the cork jacket and life-buoy represented in Fig. 11. Rubbers are made of cork inclosed in canvas sacks, and placed along the sides of ships to lessen the shock of their friction against the pier.

The Roman women's custom of wearing cork soles, mentioned by Pliny, has not yet died out, for cork soles are common in the wardrobes of the present day. Cork heels were invented in the time of Louis XV, to be worn inside of the shoe, so as to increase the apparent height of the wearer, without displaying an outer heel. Cork is also useful at the other extremity of the body, shaped into helmets, or as a kind of lining for high hats, or in ventilating-bands, for the protection of the head in hot countries against insolation. Women in the barbarous days, when dead birds were worn in hats, used cork bodies, to which eves beaks, and features Mere added, as the molds for their ornithological structures. Trimming-makers use cork molds or bodies, which they cover with silk or cotton to form elaborate ornaments for mantles and cloaks. Cravats and babies' bibs have been