WAVE. 
sea ; the last ten yards of the distance were 
described with very great rapidity. A cloud 
of a light colour appeared to ascend in this 
.spout something like quicksilver iii a tube. 
The first spout then snapped at about one- 
third of its height, the inferior part subsid- 
ing gradually, and the superior curling up- 
w'ards. Several other projections from the 
cloud appeared, with corresponding agita- 
tions of tlie water below, but not always 
in spots vertically under them : seven spouts 
in all were formed ; two other projections 
were re-absorbed. .Some of the spouts 
were not only oblique but curved ; the as- 
cending cloud moved most rapidly in those 
which were vertical : they lasted from three 
to five minutes, and their dissipation was 
attended by no fall of rain. 
WAVE, in physics, a volume of water 
elevated by the action of the wind, &c. 
upon its surface, into a state of fluctuation, 
and accompanied by a cavity. The extent 
fi'om the bottom or lowest point of one ca- 
vity, and across the elevation, to the bot- 
tom of the next cavity, is the breadth of 
the wave. Waves are considered as of two 
kinds, which may be distinguished from 
one another by the names of natural and 
accidental waves. The natural waves are 
those which are regularly proportioned in 
size to the strength of the wind which pro- 
duces them. The accidental waves are 
those occasioned by the wind’s reacting 
upon itself by repercussion from hills or 
high shores, and by the dashing of the waves 
themselves, otherwise of the natural kind, 
against rocks and shoals; by which means 
these waves acquire an elevation much 
above what they can have in their natural 
state. 
Mr. Boyle proved, by numerous experi- 
ments, tliat the most violent wind never pe- 
netrates deeper than six feet into the wa- 
ter ; and it seems a natural consequence of 
this, that the water moved by it can only 
be elevated to the same height of six feet 
from the level of the surface in a calm ; 
and these six feet of elevation being added 
to the six of excavation, in the part from 
whence that water so elevated was raised, 
should give twelve feet for the utmost ele- 
vation of a wave. This is a calculation 
that does great honour to its author; as 
many experiments and observations have 
proved that it is very nearly true in deep 
seas, where the waves are purely natural, 
and have no accidental causes to render 
them larger than their just proportion. 
vof^ yi. 
It is not to be understood, however, that 
no wave of the sea can rise more than six 
feet above its natural level in open and 
deep water; for waves vastly higher than 
these are formed in violent tempests in the 
great .seas. These however are not to be 
accounted waves in their natural state, but 
as compound ‘waves formed by the union of 
many others; for in these wide plains of 
water, when one wave is raised by the 
wind, and would elevate itself up to the 
' exact height of six feet, and no more, the 
motion of the w'ater is so great, and the 
succession of waves so quick, that while 
this is rising, it receives into it several other 
waves, each of which woitld have been at 
the same height with itself; these run into 
the first wave one after another, as it is 
rising ; by which means its rise is continued 
much longer than it naturally would have 
been, and it becomes accumulated to an 
enormous size. A number of these com- 
plicated waves rising together, and being 
continued in a long succession by the con- 
tinuation of the storm, make the waves so 
dangerous to ships, which the sailors in 
their phrase call mountains high. 
“ The Motion of the Waves,” makes an 
article in the Newtonian philosophy; the 
author having explained their motions, and 
calculated their velocity from mathematical 
principles, similar to the motion of a pen- 
dulum, and to the reciprocation of water in 
the two legs of a bent and inverted syphon 
or tube. See Principia. 
“ .Stilling Waves by means of Oil.” This 
wonderful property, though well known to 
the ancients, as appears from the writings 
of Pliny, was for many ages either quite 
unnoticed, or treated as fabulous by suc- 
ceeding pbilosophere. By means of Dr. 
Franklin, the subject again attracted the 
attention of the learned ; though it appears, 
from some anecdotes, that seafaring people 
have always been acquainted with it. Mr. 
Pennant, in his British Zoology, vol. iv. un- 
der the article Seal, takes notice, that when 
these animals are devouring a very oily fish, 
which they always do under water, the 
waves above are remarkably smooth; and 
by this mark the fishermen know where to 
find them. .Sir Gilbert Lawson, who serv- 
ed long in the army at Gibraltar, assured 
Dr. Franklin, that the fishermen in that 
place are accustomed to pour a little oil on 
the sea, in order to still its motion, tliat 
they may be enabled to see the oysters ly- 
ing at its bottom, which are there very 
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