United States or Maldives ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Except for the development in steel apparatus and the introduction of electricity as a motive agent, there has not been such a great improvement on the Greathead shield as one would naturally expect in thirty years. The method of excavating a tunnel depends altogether on the nature of the obstruction to be removed for the passage.
Towards the termination of a severe engagement in the Subzi Mundi, near Delhi, on the 10th of July, Lieutenant Wilberforce Greathead had, with part of the artillery and others, thrown himself into a serai, where they were surrounded by a host of rebels, who opened a hot fire on them. As they were not in a position to stand a siege, it was agreed that they should force their way out.
Colonel Finnis, who immediately rode out to quell the disturbance, was shot by a sepoy while addressing the 20th Regiment, and cut to pieces; thirty other Europeans were speedily slaughtered, and the cantonments given to the flames. Mr Greathead, the commissioner, and his wife, were saved by the fidelity of their servants.
Happily science has recently discovered a new method for the preserving of these old buildings without destroying them, and this good angel is the grouting machine, the invention of Mr. James Greathead, which has been the means of preventing much of vanishing England. Grout, we understand, is a mixture of cement, sand, and water, and the process of grouting was probably not unknown to the Romans.
On seeing the accident, two other life-boats immediately dashed off from North and South Shields, saved four of the men, and rescued the crew of the Betsy. It is added, that the life-boats have been in constant use at Shields since Greathead first launched his boat there in 1790, and excepting the above accident, no life has ever been lost in them, or from want of them.
Taking advantage of this system, and combining with it another scientific principle of wide applicability, Mr. J.H. Greathead has brought out an instrument called the "injector hydrant," which seems likely to play an important part in the extinguishing of fires.
Greathead suggested a curved keel. The chairman of the committee modelled a boat in clay which combined several of the good qualities of each, and this was given to Greathead as the type of the boat he was to build. From this time forward lifeboats gradually multiplied. Greathead became a noted improver and builder of them.
It was not at Delhi, however, that the Warreners heard the news; for on the 23d, only three days after the occupation of the city, they left with the flying column of Colonel Greathead, which was ordered to march down to Agra, clearing away the bands of mutineers which infested the intervening country, and then to march to Cawnpore, to be in readiness to advance on Lucknow.
Such are the motives from which we have judged his Grace the Duke of Northumberland worthy of receiving the Council Medal. The inventor of life-boats, as is well known, was Henry Greathead, of South Shields, in 1789.
But on arrival we found that the Agra people had recovered from their fright and Greathead was fool enough to believe their story that the enemy was twelve miles away, and therefore took up ground for our camp, just by the graveyard and parade-ground, which you will remember.
Word Of The Day