Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1907-08-25
HARNESSES
OLD OCEAN
GREAT STRUCTURE BUILT FOR
WAVE MOTOR
INVENTORS DREAMS ABOUT TO
BE REALIZED
Big Barge and Pier in Course of Com
structlon at Redondo Expected
to Solve Problem of
Power

During the past year experiments with
the Starr wave motor have been carried
on in and near Los Angeles until today
the Atlantic Gulf and Pacific company,
one OF the largest marine construction
concerns in the world, is building pier
at Redondo to accommodate the machin-
cry OF $4,000 horsepower plant. Yet the
large amounts of money already spent
here by the Los Angeles Wave Power and
Electric company have been so quietly
disbursed that probably not one man in
ten thousand IN this community realizes
the wide scope of this local concerns
operations.
The mystery which has surrounded the
company's plans is due to the fact that
detailed drawings explaining the work
ing of the motor could not be published
until all patent rights had been amply
protected.
The Illustrations with this article are
the first to show the inner workings of
this remarkable mechanism. Still, many
Los Angeles people saw demonstration
plant built by Fred Starr at Venice last
fall and witnessed the steady production
of electricity by the ocean swells.
FuIfiIIs Edison's Prophecy
The plant rose without notoriety and
was finally dismantled after serving its
purposes.
How did it all come about? What does
it mean that capital has come forward TO
undertake the construction of plant
eventually 20 cost $780, 900? That repre-
sentatives of hundreds of millions of capt.
tai have given their word that If the big
plant now building at Redondo does any
where near as much in proportion as the
smaller plant operated at Venice last
winter the money will pour in for world
wide exploitation of the Starr method of
running electric dynamos by the power of
ocean waves? That eminent engineers are
waiting under orders to watch for the
completion of the first unit and to be on
the ground to report the result of their
observation to the millionaires who en-
ploy them? 1t means that trained en-
gineers have exported the demonstrations
of this Los Angeles company and have
pronounced it's devices a sober, every
day success and of revolutionary signifi-
canoe. 1t means that Los Angeles will
be the first city of the world to test on
a grand scale the prediction of Edison
that the ocean is the ultimate source of
the worlds supply of power for all pur-
poses.
Success After Thirty Years
The Starr wave motor in its perfected
form is the resultant OIL over l1lIly years
of labor against disheartening odds. Many
times the inventor has been apparently
within grasp of success only to uncover
still more fundamental difficulties requir-
ing an entire reimbursement of the mechan-
ism. Finally about eight months before
the great fire at San Francisco, a work
ing model was launched in the harbor of
that city and engineers were hidden to
witness its workings
c. fnr co q
But they wanted to see it work on a large
scale and in the open sea. during storm
and calm. Very we'll said the manage
ment And they prepared to build near
the Cliff house. Then came the great
disaster and the scene of the company
operations shifted to Los Angeles. But
first came the story of the now famous
diagram of the cut this device. which is
the real secret of the realization of Starts
dream. is explained, so that its workings
can be understood by the lay mind. And
thereby hangs a tale.
Has Sudden Inspiration
It was one day after the San Fran
cisco model had been in commission for
long time that a vital defect appeared
in the clutch. The rollers had buried"
so that they failed to catch. The core,
costly affair cut from tool steel. was used
up and good for nothing. And then one
of the inventors sudden inspirations came |
to him. "We'll just cut down the faces of
the core and set in little plate under
the roller said he. No sooner said than
done and in that little wear-plate lies
the value of the entire machine. For |
when the application was made for |
patent 1t developed that the roller clutch !
was no new thing. 1t had been invented |
and tried before. and had failed, Just as
Starts had done But with the wear
plates to be renewed at a trifing ex-
pense the clutch became not only as good
as indestructible. but better. For the big
core of the Redondo plant need not be
made of tool steal. Cast iron will do.
Starr credits Thomas A. Edison for en-
barking him on the thirty years of strug-
gle toward the solution of this wave
motor puzzle, so alluring to many of
the great inventors of this day. Edison
forecasted two enterprises of the great
est moment TO the human race, namely,
the invention of apparatus for making
and using electricity and a provision for
its source from the ceaseless, limitless