1909 life preserver.....anyone know anything about these?

[ericpromer]

I received two life preservers. They are stamped that they passed inspection on June 17 1909 in newyork, newyork.  It has A-B-C  Life preserver stamped on the next section....The Lane and De Groot co name is stamped on here also.  On the very bottom it says pattent applied for....anyone know anything about these?

[talesofthesevenseas]

I can help with a bit of the history on these, but not the value. They used to make life preservers in this period out of cork. There were some major problems with them. Sometimes they would tend to put the victim of an overturned boat face down in the water. They also tended to deteriorate and the cork would become the consistancy of sawdust.

DO NOT EVER ATTEMPT TO USE ONE!!!

But they make a great decoration on the wall of a nautical bar!

Here is a terrific page that I think will provide a lot of good information for you.
http://www.mainemaritimemuseum.org/what_to_see/notes_from_the_orlop.php?orlop_note_id=17&page_function=detail

[ericpromer]

thank you for the help.  Ive searched for 2 days and that link you gave me was the best Ive seen so far.  I am really curious to see what the value would be.