1899.] HAUPT — REACTION BREAKWATER AT ARANSAS PASS. 135 



HISTORICAL RESUME OF THE EFFORTS MADE TO 

 DEMONSTRATE THE PRACTICABILITY OF THE 

 REACTION BREAKWATER AT ARANSAS PASS, TEX., 

 WITH RESULTS TO FEBRUARY, 1899. 

 (Plates VI-VIII.) 

 BY LEWIS M. HAUPT. 



{Read October 6, 1899.) 



Necessity for Improved Methods. — Inasmuch as this Society 

 has already set its seal of commendation upon a new method pro- 

 posed nearly thirteen years ago for the alleviation of ocean bars, it 

 becomes a pleasure to complete the record to date by a brief recital 

 of subsequent events. For some years prior to the filing of the 

 theses, for investigation, in the spring of 1887, I was impressed 

 with the serious obstructions and dangers to commerce due to the 

 prevalence of sand bars on alluvial coasts and the unsatisfactory as 

 well as expensive methods in vogue for their improvement. 



In fact, the only harbors of importance on our Atlantic and Gulf 

 seaboard which admitted vessels of over seventeen feet draught at 

 M. L. W., south of New York, were Philadelphia, Baltimore, Nor- 

 folk, Port Royal, Pensacola and New Orleans, only six in a coast 

 line covering about 3200 miles. The ruling depths on the bars in 

 many of the other inlets was limited to from eight to twelve feet. 



The methods of improvement in general use by maritime engi- 

 neers to-day are the building of two parallel or convergent jetties 

 for the purpose of concentrating the ebb currents upon that portion 

 of the bar included between them and dredging a channel through 

 this protected area, involving large expenditures for construction 

 and maintenance. 



History. — To remove these barriers from our doors a critical 

 examination was made of a large number of special cases both at 

 home and abroad and by comparative studies of local effects, com- 

 bined with the operation of the general laws of tides and currents^ 

 certain deductions were reached as to the causes operating to pro- 

 duce them. These deductions were formulated in the paper entitled 

 " The Physical Phenomena of Harbor Entrances," submitted to the 

 Society in April, and for which there was awarded the highly 

 esteemed Magellanic premium on December 16, 1887. 



Encouraged by this substantial recognition of the merits of the in- 

 vention, I had the honor to submit the plans to the Board of United 



