526 ANNUAL EEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1923 



are too distant from the centers of population to make their develop- 

 ment commercial at the present time. 



I have examined many other sites for tidal power, in those parts 

 of the world where the tides are sufficiently high to make tidal power 

 at all possible, and I am firmly convinced that we have at Hopewell, 

 the site that is most promising at the present time, from a commercial 

 standpoint. 



HOPEWELL PLANT 



To give you some idea of the height of the tide at Hopewell, I will 

 show some photographs (pi. 1, figs. 1 and la) that were taken this 

 summer of the Government Wharf at Hopewell at high water and at 

 low water. This wharf, which is 55 feet high, is the only one to reach 

 low water at ordinary and subnormal neap tides ; it does not reach to 

 low water at spring tides, and all other wharves in the neighborhood 

 are high- water wharves, and are only reached by the water when the 

 tide has risen about half its height. 



We will now discuss the principle which I have proposed for ob- 

 taining continuous power from these great tides, and I will draw 

 your attention to this map of the two tidal estuaries, the Petitcodiac 

 and the Memramcook rivers (fig. 2). This map shows the general 

 trend of these rivers, and their confluence at Hopewell, and it also 

 shows the fresh-water drainage areas of the two rivers — which, 

 although a minor item as compared to the great volume of salt 

 water that flows up and down these rivers, should still be borne in 

 mind in reviewing this proposal. 



The dotted lines show the respective drainage areas approximately, 

 and these have been calculated out to show a drainage basin for the 

 Petitcodiac of 784 square miles and for the Memramcook of 134 

 square miles or in the ratio of nearly 6 to 1. (The heavy black line 

 is a county boundary.) 



At present the flood tide makes up these rivers for approximately 

 six hours and then turns and flows back into the bay for six and one- 

 half hours, and this map also shows the approximate limits of this 

 flow, above which points the streams are fresh water. 



The next (fig. 3) shows a scale chart of the confluence of these two 

 rivers, at Hopewell, the proposed location of the dams that will be 

 necessary to control the waters, the depths of water at low tide, etc. 



The western dam would be 4,900 feet long, the eastern dam 4,800 

 feet long, and a wing dam of 900 feet would connect the two, and it 

 would, of course, be part of the plan to have a highway and trolley 

 line (operated by the plant) over the tops of these dams connecting 

 up the two main shores and the long peninsula that makes down be- 

 tween the two rivers. 



