Ocean Wave Poiuer Machinery. 149 



at all times furnisli a ready means of regulating such resist- 

 ance either by self-action or at will. 



For the same reason there can be no shock to the 

 machinery, for the principle of action being perfect freedom 

 in all directions, no matter how violent the shock which the 

 vessel sustains from the waves, the mass or independent 

 load pursues its relative motion until gradually dispossessed 

 of its force by the compressed air. Any shock to the 

 machinery would in fact imply that the principle of the 

 invention had not been carried out, and that the mass should 

 have freedom in that direction. 



In actual practice it is proposed to insert intermediate 

 mechanism between the independent mass and the com- 

 pressed air, to produce a mechanical advantage for economy 

 of space in the volume of the air receiver. No other 

 advantage is gained by this : the source of power, viz. the 

 oscillations of the vessel, being of course the same.* But it 

 will be thus apparent that the mechanical forms of applica- 

 tion of the principle may be as infinitely diverse as 

 machinery itself, j- 



An idea of the ultimate principle of action may be gained 

 by balancing a heavy cube of metal by elastic springs 

 attached perpendicularly to the six faces of the cube ; every 

 force actuating the outer or containing body will be exerted 

 upon the springs in the opposite direction by the cube, the 

 resultant of the relative forces thus expanding or com- 

 pressing the springs being equal to the whole relative force 

 resident in the cube, or to its independent inertia. Some 

 idea of the magnitude of the force thus engaged may be 

 bad from witnessing the movements of the ponderous balance 

 beams employed in pumping deep mines, such for instance 

 as are commonly used at Bendigo. Yet, such an impulse 

 illustrates the operation of the force in one dimension only. 



It has been asked what would be the effect upon the ship, 

 of so heavy a mass moving within board. If the movements 

 in the three dimensions be referred to three axes at right 

 angles to each other, the pressure being transferred to the 

 fixed bearings, the efiect upon the ship is the same as if the 

 mass had no motion, but were a rigid part of the ship at 



* By oscillation is not meant the angular oscillation only, as has been 

 supposed, but the resultant of the vertical, the horizontal, and the angular 

 oscillations, which makes a large difference in the right conception of the 

 nature of the power. 



t Fluidity is itself a mode of independent inertia, and forms of the 

 invention may be congtmcted in which it is the agent. 



