AN IMPROVED FLOATING BREAKWATER
Year: 1884

page_text: BADIONAL
SPECIFICATION.
JOHN PINNIGER Moss of Number 25 Tower Street Winchester in the County of
Southampton Gentleman do hereby declare the nature of my invention for AN
IMPROVED FLOATING BREAKWATER to be as follows:—
A break water formed so as to float on the surface of the sea and attached by lines
on the side from which the waves may be expected to a buoy or buoys moored to
the bottom of the sea. The breakwater to be attached on the other side to a cable
or cables moored to the bottom of the sea. The breakwater to consist of any
material that may be found or any combination of materials that may be formed
so as to float on the surface of the sea and to protrude as little as possible either
above or below the said surface.

page_text: COMPLEIE
I JOHN PINNIGER Moss of Number 25 Tower Street Winchester in the County
of Southampton Gentleman do hereby declare the nature of my invention for
PROTECTING LIFE SHIPS AND OTHER PROPERTY FROM DAMAGE BY WAVES OF THE
SEA and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
The invention consists of a breakwater formed so as to float on the surface of the
sea and attached on the side from which the waves may be expected to a buoy or
buoys moored to the bottom of the sea-The said buoy or buoys to be hereinafter
called the windward buoy The Breakwater to be attached on the other sides to
a Cable or Cables moored to the bottom of the sea or to be attached on the said
other sides or on one or on several of them as may be found convénient to aný
suitable object.
The breakwater to consist of a number of small buoys to be so fastened together
that each may float on the water.
A break water formed as herein before described will have a tendency to keep the
windward buoy from rising to the crest of the successive waves and advantage will
thus be taken of the following feature in the nature of waves-The upper portion
of a wave is the only part which acquires a motion to the leeward from the action
of the wind The water forming the sides of a trough, of the sea acquires a
perpendicular motion from the said action of the wind and the water in the bottom
of a trough of the sen acquires a motion to the windward and the said motion to
the windward will tend to move tho windward buoy so as to counteract the
tendency of the wind to move the breakwater to the lecward-Tho Cable or Cables
attached to the windward buoy or buoys respectively will be assisted in retaining
the Breakwater in its desired position by a tendency of the windward buoy or buoys
to move to the windward owing to the motion of the water in the bottom of the
successive troughs of the sea Each wavo on passing through the breakwater will
gradually lose its crest or upper portion until it emerges to the leeward of the
breakwater reduced to a comparatively harmless size.
In placing the Breakwater in position space can be left for ships to pass through
in order to get to or from the leeward of the breakwater but in cases of emergency
ships could be allowed to drive over the breakwater and would thereby do but little
damage compared to the importance of saving life and cargoes as well as the ships
themselves.
The manner in which this breakwater acts can be partly explained by the means
sometimes used as an experiment to show the possibility of maintaining a flame
at or near the bottom of the interior of a bottle, namely by introducing a
perpendicular partition into the bottle. The partition allows the formation and
maintenance of two distinct currents of air in the bottle, one upwards and the other
downwards and the flame is thus supplied with pure air. As this supply ceases in
the absence of the partition, there is no doubt that the action of the latter consists
merely of the separation of one current of air from the other. The tenacity or
power of cohesion amongst the atoms composing the partition is obviously more

page_text: tried by its own weight than by the force of the currents of air. In other words
the strength of the partition and the force of the currents of air are incommen-
surables.
It is this latter fact which the inventor considers should be taken advantage of
in the construction of breakwaters. The sea can be considered as representing one
current of air and the wind the other. It is of course not contended that in a storm
of wind at sea there is such a perfect mixture of the son with the air as there is of
the two currents of air in the bottle when the partition is removed. But it is quite
certain that if the mixture, modified as it is by the great difference in the specific
gravity of the two fluids, can be still further reduced even if not altogether
discontinued the surface of the sea will become smooth or comparatively so, and
injury will be prevented to piers, beaches, ships at anchor or passing through a
roadstead &c.
:
A breakwater can be quickly and economically made by observing the foregoing
principles. The peculiarity of the breakwater will be that it constantly floats on
the surface of the water, excepting the the windward buoy which is occasionally
submerged and the several buoys and connecting links of which it is formed are so
loosely linked together that the break water adapts itself to the unevenness of the
surface of the sen, so that the several parts of which it is composed always remain
near that surface. The weight of the connecting links and consequently their
strength can be at a maximum in that part of the breakwater towards the windward
and can be diminished gradually in those parts towards the leeward until they are
of a strength not more than sufficient to counteract the tendency of the tide or other
current in the sea to separate one part of the breakwater from another. The size
and buoyant power of the buoys can be diminished in the same way as the weight
of the connecting links, none of them to be larger than necessary to support them-
selves in addition to the weight of the connecting links at or near the surface of
the sea.
In the accompanying drawing letter A denotes the direction from which a storm
of wind accompanied by waves is approaching a breakwater The latter is shown
formed of three windward buoys marked C (1) C (II) and C (III) respectively. To
each of which is attached a set of smaller buoys marked D connected together by
links marked E ench link having at each end a loop or eye closed upon a loop or eye
attached to the end of a buoy. The three sets of smaller buoys aforesaid are joined
in the manner as shown at F F F F and together with their respective mooring
cables form a break water. The number of sets can be increased if necessary. The
section on A B marked G shows the windward buoy C (II) and its set of small buoys
immediately after the contact of a wave H with the windward buoy C (II).
section K shows the same wave broken and being reduced to harmless dimensions
by the aforesaid small buoys and at the same time another wave M approaching the
windward buoy C (II). Letter B shows the locality to be occupied by ships or
other property requiring the protection of the break water.
And
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
A break water formed of a number of buoys floating on the surface of the sea
fastened together by links and anchored by means of as many cables as may be
found necessary.