The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-12-31
WATER is RIVAL
! OF ELECTRICITY
Wave PoWe Transmission Hailed
as Newly Core ConCueror
.e on Industrial Horizon. a
IS INVENTION Ct AN ITALIAN

New Method Is Coming Into Practical
Use--Piles Driven and Granite
Drilled ~ Not Same as.
Hydraulic Power.
New Y0rk.-Unheralded except
among a narrow circle of engineers
and technicians in England and Italy,
a new method of Harvesting water, in
vented only d few years ago, IS COM
Ing into practical USE. We make the
waves Of the air work for us in a
thousand ways, and through ages have
striven to chain the tides to machin-
cry, but wave power transmission Is
hailed as newly come conqueror on
the industrial horizon. 1t is. says
Marian Storm in the New York Post,
by no means the same as hydraulic
transmission of power in the sense
now popularity used, and it proposes.
in certain fields, to rival electric trans
mission.
Capt. L. G. Culleton, R. E., who is
at present in New York, and who is
friend of the Italian inventor of the
system, George Constantinesco, talked
with enthusiasm of the service which.
he believes wave power transmission
is destined to render when the theory
Is more. commonly known, declaring 1t
comprehensive to, almost every one in
days when little boys build their own
airplanes and automobiles, although.
Of course, a description Of the method
cannot be given without some technical
Technology.
The Principle.
'The transmission of power through
pipe full Of water is the simplest
thing imaginable-if anything, simpler
than the transmission of electric cur.
rent over wire," he said. "You won
der why 1t has never been practically
applied before, since theorists have dis.
cussed it so much.
"The principle of the system differs
fundamentally from the usual concep.
ton of the hydraulic transmission Of
power, where liquid is made to flow
through the system. For in wave pow
er transmission the liquid does not
flow, but power is handed on from
particle to particle of the liquid, these
vibrating about a mean position and
transferring the impulse received from
one to another, until at last thespower
received at one end of the system has
been delivered at the other end"
So far it seemed quite understand
able. "These impulses In the form of
waves" he went on, "travel through
water at the rate of about 4,707 feet
second. The machines are built to
work at forty impulses or cycles a Sec
ond-2, 400 per minute"
"What are some of those machines
what can they do?"
"Well, wave power generators and
transmission piping are on the mar
ket now in England, and tools OF
good many kinds are obtainable-rock
drills, riveters. coal cutting drills, disc
and chain type coal-cutting machines
impact screens, concentrating tables
even piledrivers.
"Wave power transmission doesn't
seem so very differert from alternat-
ing current electrical transmission,
some one reflected.
Wave Transmission.
"There is similarity, and it's not
coincidence" Capt. Culleton answered
"Many Of the laws that govern wave
and electrical transmission are inter-
changeable. You'll be interested to
know that in wave transmission there
are the equivalents Of what we call in
electrical practice volts, amperes, fire.
quency, angle Of phase, induction, ca.
pacity resistance, condensers, trans
formers, single-phase and poly-phase
systems"
He was interrupted by the question
whether anybody could conscript his
private pond for service by aid of wave
power machines.
"Oh, naturally, worldwide patents
cover the storage Of energy in liquids.
Experimental work has been carried
on in England since 1914, and early in
the war the British government took
over the entire experimental plant and
made all the patents secret, but I'M
derstand that considerable use was
made Of the system in equipping allied
battle planes.
He explained how docile water must
needs become in the grasp Of this in
ventT: "As long as your pipe is
strong enough to do the work, the
power impaired to the particles at
one end Of the pipe line by the gen.
orator can't help being delivered at
the other end. lima ldg5
do you think, then, that wave
power will even chase electricity out
of the fieldY trs
mo, certainly--but Il can be used
I'm cases where 1t is not desirable to
use electric power, or in fields where
electrically operated machines do not
give the best results, as In mines, or