The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1912-07-06
OF THE SEA
Terrific Power Is Generated When
a Cyclone RACES.
THEN THE WATERS RUN WILD
All Regularity Of Wave Motion Ceases
as the Sea Bursts Its 6ounds-Gran-
lite Blocks Weighing Thousand Tons
Tossed About Like Pebbles.


as the Sea Bursts Its 6ounds-Gran-
lite Blocks Weighing a Thousand Tons
Tossed About Like Pebbles.
A pond troubled by a pebble gives a
comprehensive Idea of the mechanism
of the perpetual motion Of the ocean,
now slow, regular and majestic, run
ming from horizon to horizon, now
rushing in ungovernable fury against
the land. When d pebble falls in a
pond it produces a fine circular line,
which widens, multiplying until stop
ped by its boundaries. Just so is pro-
duced the surging of the sea.
To judge from appearances, the
swells transport the water toward the
! circumference of the pond. In point of
fact they do nothing of the kind, as is
easily proved by match or splinter
Of wood being cast upon the water.
The match is hardly raised or lowered
! by the passage Of the swell. The action
( In evidence Is simply the transmission
/ of motion, not the transmission Of
/ matter.
The fine waves Of the sea are gen
Grated by the wind as fine waves are
generated by the wind when 1t ripples
field of grain ready for the harvest
The waves that run over the field Of
grain are real waves, often waves in
fierce action. The spears of grain are
immovably fixed to the ground by their
roots. but every blade transmits its os-
cillatory movement TO the next blade
Just so liquid molecules are formed.
In the middle of a vast ocean, such
as the equatorial Atlantic, for instance.
great regular fluctuations are seen mul.
tiplying in parallels like the burrows
in vast plowed field. On the broad
ocean the liquid mounds of the sea rise
with every swing with more or less
even regularity.
The mariners imagination has given
the great waves of the high sea the
reputation of fabulous height. Relia.
BILE authors have talked OF waves
mountain high and Of waves 100 feet
In height. Exact measurement has Civ.
en- a closer estimate
The waves OF the high sea, of the ma.
Jor oceans, attain the height Of fifty
feet under the exceptional conditions
Of tempest in the vicinity of Cape
Horn and the Cape Of Good Hope
The surges here estimated are those in
free circulation on the high seas.
When n wave, whatever its strength
or its weakness, meets a solid obstacle,
whether that obstacle be rocky cliff
or ship, the swell rebounds to ex-
traordinary heights. Lighthouses are
often swept by the sea from base to
summit
The length of waves is between
twenty and thirty times their height,
and the slope Of the seas hills is very
gentle 4 wave sixty feet high is
somewhere between 1000 and 1900
fest long.
At the axis OF the revolving tempest
called a cycloue there are many wave
systems, mOv-% in all directions
meeting and combining When the cy-
clone is in action the sea is said to
burst its bounds"
At such a time all regularity of wave
succession ceases, and the sea runs
wild, with force beyond human power
10 estimate. Blocks of granite weigh
ing from 1,0O0 to 200 tons are caught
by the sea und rolled like pebbles to
distances or 300 feet and more, and
sea walls are spintered as By hatch
cts. The tive power" Of furious
sea is estimated by multiplying the
mass of the surge by the square OF its
speed.
When the surf. impelled by the drive
of the broad sea, meets Il solid obsta-
Gle its pressure is thirty tons per
square meter of water This estimate,
which is close explains how water,
when contir lally sapplng the foot Of
cliff. breaks down the land, forces
back the shore hne and little by little,
constantly and surely Increases the
seas domain.
A wave from 80 to 80 feet high and
G25 feet long-such a wave as the sea
produces every eighteen seconds-rep-
resents power of about 1850 horse
power. steam. per square yard.-Har-
per's Weekly.