New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1912-02-14
FORCE OF THE SEA
Terrific Power Is Generated When
a Cyclone RACES.
THEN THE WATERS RUN WILD
All Regularity Of Wave Motion Ceases
a. the Sea Bursts lie 6ounds-0ran.
ito Blocks Weighing . Thousand Tons
raased About Like pobhlss.


Tossed About Like Psbblss.
A pond troubled by pebble gives
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 pebble fails In
pond it produces fine circular line
which widens. multiplying until stop
ped by its boundaries. Just 80 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 it ripples
a 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 vast ocean. such
10 the equa torial Atlantic, for instance.
great regular unduiataons are seen nul.
tiplying in parallels IKE the burrows
in q vast plowed Held. On the broad
ocean the liquid mounds Of the sea rase
with every swing With more Of lsss
even regularity. -;
The mariner's Imagination hos given
the great waves OF the high "a the
reputation Of fabulous height Relia.
bio authors have talked OF waves
mountain high and Of waves 40 net
In height. Exact measurement has CIV.
a q closer estimate.
The waves OF the high go. o. the ma.
jor oceans. attain the height Of atty
feet under the exceptional conditions
Of tempest In tho vicinity. Of Capa
Horn and. the Cape of Good Hope.
The surRes here estimated are those IN
free circulation on tho high seas.
When wave. whatever its strength
or fts weakness. meets-a solid obstacle.
whetber thRt obstacle; be 4 rocky
or 4 ship. the swell rebounds to ex.
traordinary heights. Lighthouses are
often swept BY the sea from base to
summit.
The length Of waves Is betwssn
twenty and thirty times their height.
and the slope Of the seas hills II very
gentle. A wave sixty feet high Is
somewhere between 1000 and 1900
feet long.
At the axis of the revolving tempest
called a cyclone there are many wave
systems. moving 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
to estimate. Blocks of granite weigh
ing from 1000 to 1900 tons are caught
by the sea and rolled like pebbles to
distances of 300 feet and more. and
sea walls are splintered as by hatch
cts. The live 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 a solid obsta-
Gle it's pressure is thirty tons per
square meter of water. This estimate.
which is close, explains how water.
when continually sapping the foot of
4 clin, breaks down the land, forces
back the shore line and little by little.
constantly and surely, increases the
seas domain.
A wave from SO to IS feet high and
625 feet long-such q wave 40 the sea
produces every eighteen seconds-rep'
resents power of about 1850 borse~
power. steam, per square yard.-Har-
per's Weekly.
4..A>.. 81 e&;ss ul~ n$s