The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1882-04-01
Electro Motive Powers.

The action and reaction of chemical
and electrical energy in the store battery
of M. Faure, and the action and reaction
OF the mechanical movement and eIectri-
cal currents in coupled-up dynamo
electrical machines, have conspired to-
gether TO advance the cause of the elec-
trical transmission of motor power, and
to favor the utilization of the vast natu-
raj sources of motor energy that are at
all times present in blowing winds and
in flowing water. Precisely as the store
battery is necessary to render the fitful
impulses of the capricious wind avail
able for steady and reliable work, SO
also is it essential for the practical
utilization of such periodic occurrences
as the flowing and ebbing of the tidal cur
rents of the sea. Sir VIM. Thompson APP
pears to have been led to cast
longing and loving eye upon
windmills on account of the sus-
picion that it would not answer to con-
struct basins along the coast for generat-
ing currents of electricity out of the in
fiux and effiux of the tide, because the
land, which might by the same amount
of labor be reclaimed from the dominion
of the sea, would have higher money
value for agricultural purposes than the
water reservoir would have as source
of motive power. 1t must be remem-
bered, however, that this argument does
not at all apply to the various well
known instances in which vast irreclaim-
able basins are already within the do
minion of the tide. Thus Prof. Sylvia
nus Thompson has pointed out that this
is essentially the case in the neighbor-
hood of Bristol, where he resides. Ma
ture seems there almost to have taken it
in hand to provide before hand for the
working ont of the problem. Prof.
Thompson states that the construction
of only few yards of embankment
would in that instance provide tidal
basin with rise and fall of twenty three
feet; and where at the present time pow
er runs to waste every year which would
suffice, if converted to mechani cal ac-
count, to charge 10000, 900 of Faure
batteries and to raise 20, 900 ,000, 900 of
pounds one foot high. He calculates that
one-tenth part of this power would be
quite enough for the permanent lighting
of the city of Bristol. He further esti-
mates that a fifth part of the tidal flow
which now runs to waste in the channel of
the Severn, where the rise and fall are
of still larger amount, would suffice to
tEht ONCiJ SAGJ hAAo W SuAA CfC1y 4OOAl,
spindle and axle in Great Britain. 1t will
be thus seen how even the boldness of
the idea of utilizing the Falls of Niagara
is already on the point of being surpassed
by the aspirations of scientific men. If
this dream of the application of the tidal
pulsations of the sea to the production of
mechanical movement through the in
strumentalily of store batteries and trans
mitted electrical currents is ever real
lied, this indeed would be case of the
conservation of energy upon the most
stupendous scale; for under such cir
cumstances it would be the majestic roll
of the terrestrial globe itself in its mex
orable whirl in space, which would have
been harnessed to work the machinery of
man. With such prime dynamo-elec-
trical generator there would ..ssuredly
be no limit to the work which might be
performed.