The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-26
A NEw souncE or rowEn.

NEW SOURCE OF POWER.
 To harness the waves of old ocean and utilize their wasted power and energy has been favorite dream with mechanics and scientists for many long years, but no real success has thus far attended their efforts Any one who has noticed the waves dashing against the beach. or has not ed their effect, cannot fall to have thought of their power. and of the immense good that power might &C., complish If man could make them sub servient to his wiIl--or any reasonable proportion of them. It is also proper to note that efforts to utilize the tides have also been made; wheel. or mo- tor, for example. that would be driv- en by the weight of the tide as it comes in and also as it goes out, the machinery being so constructed as to utilize both the direct and reverse motion of the water.
 Notwithstanding the practical or actual failure of efforts in that di- rection 1t would not be wise to say that success, great or modified. will not yet be reached. It Is always diff fcult to tell just what human skill, energy and determination can ac- complish, and 1t Is never safe or wise to declare that a certain aim cannot be accomplished. And this reflection leads us to note that something along this line is going to be tried at Att lantic City very soon.
 "At the outer end of one of the piers of that city," says The New York Tribune. ''have been installed two wa ter wheels which in design closely re- semble a type of motor which is not ed for it's high efficiency when driv- en by a steady stream. This is said to be the first application of turbines to the service for which they will there be employed. The wheels are to be- coupled with dynamos. and if the inventors hopes are realized enough electricity will be generated to fur nish light for the pier and adjacent buildings, and also to do more or less heating. That the plan adopted win work after a fashion is not in the least unlikely. The main question yet to be answered is whether the cleo tricity will be developed as econom- ically as 1t would be with gasolene or steam engine. It also remains to be seen whether the motor will be equally responsive to the gentle rip ples and ground swell of a summer sea and tremendous pillows which eat away so much of the New Jersey coast during the stormy period of the year. On these points and regarding the continuity of operation during calm weather more will be known a few months hence. An incalculable amount of energy is manifested in the work of the wind in creating waves--a mill lion times greater perhaps. than that required by human industry. That a small fraction of 1t may yet be uti- lized does not seem a foolish dream"
 One advantage about this prospec- tive source of power is that 1t is ex- haustless, like the force of the sun and the winds. Fuel may be exhaust ed so that steam power will be at an end. Streams may dry up or be de- pleted so that water power will be | difficult to obtain, but the tides and the waves will be with us as long as nature and natures laws are in force. While 1t is true that the action and the force of the waves and tides are not continuous, yet "a properly con structed wave motor" to quote The Tribune again, "may in some respects give greater satisfaction than a tide motor. The former ought to work more continuously than the latter. for the tides are available only during certain hours of the day. Possibly a wave motor could be employed even when a windmill Is idle. Waves may be raised at considerable distance from the shore on which they break. The total absence of breeze on land does not necessarily indicate that there is no wind miles away at sea" And so it is at least possible. and perhaps not improbable, that even the present generation may behold, all along our sea coasts. great power plants which will generate and store up the enormous and ceaseIess energy of the mighty waves and thus furnish power that will be continuous and almost without limit Stranger things have happened within the memory Of many and this is not one of the tn- possible.
 -S~S-s-
 Many a sadly perplexed giver of