Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/590

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��Popular Science Monthly

��terially advance, but the vibratory im- pulse that creates the wave does move forward. We have an every-day illus- tration of this in the fluttering motions of a flag. But there comes a time in this disturbance, where water is con- cerned, when the mass affected does ac- tually advance. This is when the body of the wave can not rise and fall with- out losing its balance, so that it tumbles over, breaks, and goes pounding up the incline of the beach and hurls its volume \ iolently against anything standing in the way. The shallowness of the water is responsible for this, because there is not room for the abnormal vertical movement set up by the wave-making impulse with its onward drive.

Now, as Air. Brasher reasons, if the wave-forming action of any particular body of water could be upset, then the creation of the billow would be nipped at its very beginning, and there would not be a chance for the development of that movement which would be capable of acquiring destructive momentum. It is like checking a flywheel at the start instead of trying to bring it to a stand- still after it has attained some speed of revolution. To this end, the Brasher system has recourse to an air compressor connected with perforated pipes laid on the sea-bed, far out in the water, and deep enough to sustain waves before they be- come breakers — in other words, before their staggering masses tumble violently forward. In rising, the air bubbles tend to interrupt or to destroy the rotary mo- tion of the water particles — that move- ment which is characteristic of the wave. By doing this the wave impulse is checked, and the billow subsides and passes shoreward into shallow water, effectually robbed of its power to do harm. This disruptive eft'ect of the bubbles is magnified by employing com- pressed air, because the globules expand as they mount and increase their inter- ference as they get nearer the surface where the lashing crest of a wave has its birth.

But the Brasher air-breakwater is not designed merely to safeguard beaches. It might be adapted for the temporary calming of the waters about a stranded ship so that her salvage might be under- taken at any time. An installation of

��this sort was made on the rocky coast of Massachussetts where a wharf could not be built in a sheltered haven. The air, supplied from a compressor, made it possible to load barges with stone at all times instead of waiting for favor- able weather. It is easy to imagine other applications, for instance, such as the building of piers and the like which normally would be halted if the wind- swept waters were seriously disturbed.

���This is a smoke laundry. After having been washed the smoke is enriched by oil and gases and is conducted again into the stove where it is thoroughly consumed

Laundering Smoke and Using it Over Again

FOR the purpose of abolishing the smoke given off by a coal stove and of employing the unconsumed gas and particles of carbon which ordinarily go up the chimney and are wasted, an ar- rangement of pipes and water tanks has been devised. The apparatus consists of three tanks connected together and to the top and bottom of the stove. Smoke leaving the stove is conducted first to a cooling tank composed of a coil of pipe .submerged in cold water. From this coil the smoke is drawn by a suction pipe into a second tank filled with water. Here the .smoke is thoroughly laundered, passing on into the third and last tank, which is partly filled with water and kerosene.

The laundered smoke is enriched by the oil and passes again into the stove, where it is thoroughly consimied. From the standpoint of health, this arrange- jnent is highly desirable.

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