News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03
AN OCEAN WAVE MOTOR.
The Unique Invention of San Fran
cisco Man who is Not a Keely.

Many a visitor to the Cliff House has
wondered what the spidery looking con-
trivance is for that they have seen q few
hundred yards up the beach at Point
Lobos, says the San Francisco Examiner.
II they will go up to it now and make
inquiries, for it is at least in working
order, they will find that it is q machine
for turning the rythmical beating of the
waves against the rocks into power that
can be utilized for working mills and
manufactures and driving cable cars and
putting saltwater baths into city houses,
and sprinkling the streets and flushing
the sewers.
Though the result of supplying pow
er that can take the place of high priced
coal is so important, the machinery by
which it is accomplished is simple
enough. One wonders as soon as he
secs il why somebody didn't think of it
ages ago.
All that there is of it is sort of de,
veloped suction pump, In which the
power is supplied by the waves, res
Crvoir and water wheels. Suspended
from big iron uprights is framework,
across the lower part of which is fastened
heivy planking. This planking pre-
sents surface to the waves about six
feet by twelve, and lis framework is so
arranged that it can be lowered or raised
as the tide rises and falls. The waves
dashing against this move it in iron
grooves backward aud forward, and its
motion is communicated through some
other machinery to twelve-inch pis-
ton so that O movement of thirty-two
feet by the framework causes nine foot
movement of the piston. This pump
connects with q long section pipe the
other end of which is under water.
This pipe is fitted with a screen to keep
ont sand aud debris. An air chamber,
fourteen feet high, keeps the pressure
in the pump steady and forces con-
stant stream of water through the big
iron pipe that Chambers up the cliff and
over the hillocll to height of $50 feet.
That is as high as the pipe goes now,
but the force is sufficient to pump the
water q height of 500 feet above the sea
level. The remainder of the plan is
huge reservoir at that height and sys-
tenn of water wheels which would sup
ply power limited only by the number
of motors in use.
After the water had passed over the
water wheels it is the idea of the cOmpa.
ny that it could be brought into the city
and used for private baths, street sprink-
ling, sewer flushing and other things
At present the motor only is completed,
and the water pumped mp is allowed to
run off in the ground.
The force, of course, increases as tho
tile rises and as the wind sets in toward
the land. Ordinarily the motor does
not work at low tide, but will run usual
ly from eighteen to twenty hours per
day, and under favoring conditions of
wind and tide will work steadily the
whole twonty-fOur.
The motor was begun about three ye.4l
ago, but unfortunate circumstances have
delayed its completion. Several storms
sew, raj times thrown the work back, and
when the dynamite loaded schooner ex-
ploded off Point Lobos the rock on which
it wns being bnilt was split in two. 1t
has only just been completed, but has
so far worked with complete success.