Smyrna times., 1927-11-02
PLAN TO HARNESS
BAY OF FUNDY TIDE
Promoters Hope to Develop
100000 Horse Power.


of Fundy, famous in song and story
and known to every schoolboy stu
dent of geography, are about to be
harnessed by industry, according to
New Brunswick promoters plans,
which ought to be awarded a prize
for novelty and which In principle are
as simple as they are novel.
The New Brunswick scheme must
not be confused with the Maine prof
ect submitted to the people a year or
two ago, under which PassamaquOddy
bay, marking the eastern terminus of
the boundary between Canada and the
United States, was to be turned into a
huge mill pond. Passamaquoddy forms
a large arm at the opening of the Bay
Of Fundy. The New Brunswick
scheme is to be tried 125 miles north
east of the very tip of the neck of the
bottle.
Nowhere else in the world Is there
the curious tidal phenomenon that re-
ours twice every "a hours in the Bay
of Fundy. The tide, which ebbs and
flows gently on open coasts, here finds
itself subject to unusual restrictions.
Not only is there an unusually long,
gradually narrowing inlet, but the bot
tom of the sea shelves gently upward,
so that the inflowing tide has pres
sure put upon it from both sides and
from the bottom. 1t therefore rises to
unusual height
River Gets Heavy Tide.
AT the tip Of the Bay of Fundy be-
gins the channel of the Petitcodiac
river. And into this little channel
surges twice a day the mighty volume
of Fundy's tides.
As river the Petitcodiac does not
amount to much, but as a tidal basin
it is unique. When the flowing tide
reaches Moncton, 25 miles up the riv-
er from its mouth, it has so piled upon
itself that it comes in wall of water.
This wall, called 'bore," making
a noise like the rumble of train, can
be heard miles away. In the spring
ice cakes as big as box cars float sea
ward with the ebbing tide and are
tumbled back with the flow faster
than man can walk.
Engineers claim this great volume
of energy now going to waste can be
turned into electric power. Their plan
is to build a rock-filled dam nearly
mile long across the mouth of the Pc
titcOdiac. Twice day when the tide
is running in three locks in the dam
will be opened. This will fill to the
brim Al miles of tidal basin. Then
the locks will close
Get 100000 Horse Power.
By lowering the imprisoned water
two to five feet twice daily, it is es-
timated 100000 horse power can be
generated at a price lower than at
Niagara.
As part of the scheme a spill basin
will be provided for by the smaller
tidal basin of the Memramcook river.
The rock from which material for
the dam will be taken is the same
rock from which Fifth avenues ia
nous "brown-stone fronts" were built.
Critics of the scheme fear that the
silt and mud of the rivers may bring
disaster to the plans. When an open
basin secured twice a day by the
tides is turned into a setting basin.
trouble, they say, will result.
But the promoters, who include Dex.
ter Cooper, an engineer who has long
been studying the problem of Fundy's
tides; C. F. Ericsson, and H. NJ. Blair
of New York, and a number of New
Brunswick and Nova Scotia fnanciers,
'are sanguine. Prospect of a local
power development has produced great
interest in the languishing maritime
provinces.