562 



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. 



