148 Ocean Wave Power Machinery. 



Art. LII. — On Ocean Wave Power Machinery. 

 By S. R. Deverell, Esq. 



[Read 9th December, 1872.] 



This invention for utilising ocean wave power on board 

 sea going vessels consists — in its most abstract form — of a 

 heavy mass freely poised in all directions upon a medium of 

 compressed air, or other elastic medium, (or by atmospheric 

 pressure acting against a vacuum,) so that it is abso- 

 lutely independent of the motion of the ship. This perfect 

 freedom is obtained by referring it to three dimensions at 

 right angles to each other ; viz., a direction fore and aft, 

 called the first dimension (the terms vertical and horizontal 

 being clearly inapplicable to a vessel oscillating on waves) ; 

 a direction athwart ships (called the second dimension) ; and 

 a thud dimension at right angles to the two former or to 

 the plane of the deck, and corresponding to the term vertical 

 in its land signification. Thus, every movement of the 

 vessel in whatever direction, produces a counter relative 

 impulse of the freely poised mass in the opposite direction,, 

 the force being jointly proportioned to the mass employed, 

 and the resultant of all the Ayave forces acting upon the 

 ship. The movements in the three separate dimensions, and 

 which of course are irregular in their character, are reduced 

 to a uniform direction, and added together by double action 

 ratchet wheels and epicyclic gearing, the combined move- 

 ment being made to merge in the rotation of a single 

 shaft constantly in one direction.* This shaft comjpresses 

 air into a receiver, and the compressed air so stored up is 

 then used in the same manner as steam in a high pressure 

 engine, with the usual appliances for regulating the supply 

 and action. 



Each movement of the vessel, however slight, thus con- 

 tributes a volume of compressed air, the magnitude of which, 

 owing to the hugeness of the force which moves the ship,, 

 can be controlled within. 



From this elementary statement of the principle it will 

 be seen that the mass is opposed only in all directions by 

 the resistance or work to be done ; and valves for preserving, 

 increasing, or diminishing the density of the compressed air, 



* Wheels may be altogether dispensed with, and valves substituted 

 in their place, water being employed as an incompressible medium in 

 compressing the air, in tbe same manner as in the appliances used in the 

 Mont Cenis railway tunnel. 



