I 



Tntuxitioii Sttithru 51 



was designed, and there Ih nothin<^ hut the design, no ac<v>nipnnyingd*>*«'rii)- 

 tion to e.\[)hiin nmttere. 



(i) A very detailed account ni the "Wave En^im- m iwi» ; r.v. 



dated 1871-2. (ialton was very busy during these years with an < ur 



to invent an engine by which the energy of waves might \ie rendered avail- 

 able for useful work, aiul in particular for the propulsion of ships. Galton's 

 attention was prol)jil)ly first drawn to the matter by the ditticulty there is 

 in getting from an open boat on board a vessel at sea. 



"TlioHti who ill i'oiii;li weather have had occasion to get on Ixtard a voascl at soa are well 

 aware of the hirge and rapid changes of relative jKwition Iwtwoen the boat and the vesKel. At 

 one inoineiit the Ixwit has to tx; fended ofT from the side.n of th(f com|>anion ladder againitt which 

 it is violently dashed, at another it is lying many feet below its lowermost 8t«)>s. No ordinary 

 activity and presence of mind are re(|uired in a person unaccustomed to the rhythm of theae 

 changes to seize the exact moment when it is possible to jump onto the ladder without accident. 

 Even if the waves lie so short compareil to the length of the vessel that she rent* in perfect 

 steadiness while the lioat is tossing about, the difficulty of eml>arkatioii is still very great, for 

 the rise and fall of the boat is 4 ftiet in moderate weather in a roadstead like Spitheajl' (of 

 course it is much more in the open sea) and it will Ik- repeated jxrhaps 12 times in the niinut«. 

 It is clear that this energy might be made to do work, if the l)oat were secured to the end of 

 an arm, moving vertically up and down like a pump handle, that handle might be connected 

 with suitable mechanism and caused to perform ust^ful work." 



The simplest conception is that of a buoy attached to a lever with fixed 

 fulcrum ; the up and down motion of the lever may be turned to useful 

 work. Galton calculates a table of wave energy, meiisured in horse-jx)wer per 

 ton of surface water. Thus for a wave of 5 lb. height (from trough to crest) 

 with a period of 5 seconds, and a vessel displacing 1 ton of water, the horse- 

 power would be rS. Galton next takes two veasels F and IT and he pro- 

 (Kises to link them together in such wise that they have complete liberty 

 within the range of the slide which forms part of the "link." 



"The link consists of a Hooke's joint at the side of IK, which allows W to mil and to yaw,— it 

 will be obvious that the same movement which permits rolling obviously includes h(«ving. An 



' A few extracts from L. G.'» Record throw light on these years: "Frank gave op his 

 rabbit-breeding and tiK)k to machine in venting... We were at South.sea enjoying the I>ockyard 

 at Portsmouth, and the sight of the great ships of war. CapUin Hall took us al>out in his 

 .steam launch. We went over the Wellington, the Victory, the St Vincent training ship, the 

 Queen's Yacht the Enchantress, and the Monarch and Oevast«tion. the great ironcla-ls, also the 

 Trafalgar previous to its sailing next daj-.... Frank Uken up with spiritualism and att<nided 

 meetings at Mr Crookes's and Mr Cox's. We went to Brighton for the British AH.s<Kiation, 

 and Emma [Francis Galtons sister] joine<l us on the 10th [August). Frank President of the 

 Geographical Section. Stanley inatle himself most con.spicuous and obnoxious" [s.* our p. ."M)]. 



