The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1894-07-05
TANNING THE OCEAN.
WONDERFUL POWER OIL EXERCISES
OVER THE ANGRY WAVE.

Kh9 Active agent Is Oleic Acid, o Dasc0v-
ery Made by German Investigasors--A
Tain Layer or This Acid Possesses q Po-
sency which Is Simply Marvellous.
The effect of oil in calming the sur
face Of q stormy sen, the original dis
covery Of which was accidental, has of
late been the subject of scientific inves-
tigation, and it is now possible to
choose such oils as are best suited for
the purpose, and also to point out the
source of their peculiar power over the
waves The statistics collected at the
photographic Office of the bureau of
navigation show, by the reports Of sea
captains themselves, that many vessel
haa been saved not only from serious in
jury but from laundering, by the use
sof y few gallons Of oil slowly trickled
into the sea Tho influence of the oil il
frequently described iii such reports as
wonderful, magical and almost inc-edi-
BILE.
It is not difficult to see upon what
this calming effect Of oil depends, al
though the complete explanation of it
involves mathematical process of DEM
onsfration. The oil acts like thin skin
drawn over the water, resisting the
tendency of the latter to break into
spray under the force of the wind The
danger to ship from storm waves arises
from the breaking of the waves. AS long
as their surfaces are smooth and their
crests unbroken the vessel rides them
easily and safely. But when they break,
and secondary waves are formed, it Ia
quite otherwise. Then the ship plunges
into the foamicg walls upreared around
II, with frame racking shocks; immense
nl&gses OF water thunder down upon it's
deck sweeping everything clean, and
sometimes even the strongest hnlls and
the best seanlnnship are unable to pre-
vail Ia tho contest This is the danger
that the spreading Of oil over the waves
removes
At fixst sight II seems almost impos-
sible that thin oily Aim resting on
the tfemend0us SEQ waves could exercise
col3trol ling influence ever thern. The
displky ef resistlehs energy naads by the
breaking waFns II ID imposing and ter
rific thns one might well believe 40
power Iess gigantic chan their own
could withstand them. Ths eject OF
the OH resembles thas III the apparently
insignificant forte 0f chemical combina-
tansa holding iii rnEtTaiaat the explosive
dnergyUf gunpowder.
~ II TO German investigators that we
owe the discovery Of the active agent
which enables oil to exercise its calm
ing effect upon the sea This agent is
oleic acid, an ingredient found In lard,
olive oil and many other oils Those
oils that possess the largest proportion
of oleic acid are the most effective in
controlling the waves. 1t is through its
gradual separation from the rest of the
oil and It's diffusion in the water that
oleic acid acts. When drop of oil rests
upon water, the oil fiattens out through
the effects of its own weight. At the
edge Of the hattened disk of oil the oleic
acid tends most rapidly to dissolve In
the water, and the very act Of dissolv-
Ing evolves energy which causes the oil
tosspread still farther, thus keeping it's
edges constantly i'm contact with water
that has not yet become charged with
oleic acid This spreading continues
with great rapidity until all of the oleic
acid has been dissolved Sometimes the
layer thus formed does not exceed
twelye-millionth of an inch in thicknessl
It would not be easy to explain, with
out entering into technicalities, how the
forces involved in the dissolving action
just described result in resistance to
the rising OF waves Mathematical con-
siderations prove that such an effect ex-
lists. and it has been shown experiment
tally that oleic acid spreading over water
is capable of arresting the progress of
floating chips driven by the wind, and
even of forcing such chips to move
against the direction Of the wind
The power of d wave is made up Of
the combined energy Of all Of the parti-
cles of water composing it, but every
particle at the surface CT the wave is
opposed by the force brought into play
by tho oleic acid, and thus the tendency
OF the surface of the wave to break is
resisted. OF course the formation of
the wave as a whole cannot be prevent
ed by this mere surface resistance, but |
the character of the action going ON at |
the surface is controlled by it, and that |
is the important thing SO far as the |
safety of ships is concerned
The discovery Of the essential part !
played by oleic acid explains why pc
troleum has never been found so efficient |
rs other oils olive oil, for instance. in |
smoothing waves--for petroleum COM
tains comparatively small proportion
Of that Ingredient Tho German inves-
tigatora would recommend the use OF /
pure oleic acid except for the fact that
Il freezes nc about 18 degrees above
zero and consequently is useless in very
oold weather. They have found. how I
ever. that mixture OF oleic acid and
alcohol remains liquid at only 8 degrees
shove zero, and they accordingly rec
such q mixture as being the
best wave calming means yet discover
ID Almost any animal or vegetable oil
= better than petroleum. Soap water
has been found effective, IL goao con-