The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-02-13
FORCE 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 It's Bounds-Gran-
lite Blocks Weighing Thousand Tons
Tossed About Like Pebbles.
A pond troubled by 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 ungoverna BILE. fury against
the land. When a pebble falls in
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 a 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
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 it's 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 undulations are seen null
in a 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 lima gination has given
the great waves Of the high sea the
reputation of fabulous height. ReIia-
BILE authors have talked Of waves
mountain high and of waves 120 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 a 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 a wave, whatever its strength
or it's weakness, meets a solid obstacle
whether that obstacle be a 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. A wave sixty feet high is
somewhere between 1000 and 1,2o(
feet long. s.
At the axis Of the revolving tempest
called a cyclone there are many wave
systems, moving in all directions
clone is in action the sea is said tc
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 tt
distances Of 800 feet and more. ant
sea walls are splintered as by hatch
cts. The .'ive power of a furiou:
sea is estimated by multiplying the
mass Of the surge by the square Of it.
speed.
When the surf, impelled by the driv,
of the broad sea. meets a solid obsta
Gle it's pressure is thirty tons Pc
square meter of water. This estimate
which is close, explains how water
when continually sapping the foot O.
a cliff, breaks down the land, force.
back the shore line and little by little
constantly and surely, increases tn
seas domain.
A wave from SO to 35 feet high ant
625 feet long-such a wave as the SCI
produces every eighteen seconds-rep
resents power of about 1850 horse
power, steam, per square yard.-Har
per's Weekly.