TIDAL ENERGY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1294, 24 November 1911, Page 3

TIDAL ENERGY.

NF.YV LIGHT UPON AN OLD PROBLEM i'("INSTANT I'OWKR. Colonel If. X. Mamie, I'M!., U.K.. h rites .'I- 1 ollinv.- ill Hip "Stitnil-.tnl": — \Vli« n Sir William delivered bis |n"pli'iy 113 t» Hie approaching' ix-li,-iu-Linn of our coal supply "i«j iin-pos-ibility nf hanies-.ing 111" tirl;il cur-l-cuts In lake the pla<c of coal as a source of on orgy, lie was speaking strictly in aecnnlancu v. ifli tlu' book, lii.'.l it was a book that was some few months out of dale. 'Nv.ne twenty ago every engineer hail "lidal power"' on tin; brain, and I v.»s associated with a. vc-vy prominent elecIrieian in I Ik- consideration of several schi'incs, but twist and turn tlicm as wo might, wo always ran up against a fluidameiilal diliiciiiiy, viz., Ilia I. tlio interest on tbo first cost of construction invaxialily wiped out tho ultimate saving on tbo fuel bill. The cost of cons-truction, however, is divisible into two separate beading, viz., the cost of impounding enough water lo give the required power whilst tlio tiilu is runniug either out or in, and tho cost, of accumulating enough power (cither electrically or otherwise) to meet the requirements of the consumer during the periods of slack water, when there is mi diffurunco of level between the lide and the water in the reservoire. This is really Hie crucial point of the whole problem, i'or civilh.ation cannot readjust ibeif to work by tidal lime.

A solution of tho first portion of the problem came to me some years ago, at once simple arid inexpensive, but (.hough ll reduced the cxpensea of one installation enormously, (be second part still stood in the way, viz., the accumulation of power necessary to meet the peak of the lewd when it happens to eoincido in (ime with the period of slack or liigli (ide. The solution of the second part, however, came (o me quite recently in a rather curious manner. I bad often bad occasion lo travel. bet ween T/union and a coast town,, backward.-, and forwards, and had noticed thai, if.it was high water in the Thames when I crossed it 011 my outward journey it was always high water at tho other place at the lime of my arrival. Of course I was always well aware that the time of high water varies all along the coast—every yachts-man knows that fact—but its significance never struck 1110 until 011. that one day, Tvith the. tidal scheme in m.v head, it flashed upon mo that I bad found the explanation of all my difficulties.

- LINKIXC-UP. Jf it was high water, say, at London Bridge at 2 p.m. and high water at my destination about sixty miles away across country at about I p.m., it followed that when the current was slackest at the former place it was- running strong at the latter. I had only to put down a plant at each place big enough to k-ed both places and connect them by an electric cable to secure a-constant output of power, without (ho need of any accumulators or other storage arrangements lit all. I went back to my estimates and converted the idea into pounds, shillings, and pence, and found that whereas iu tho best of our previous projects the capital outlay for each nominal horse-power came to about ,£7O (tho interest on which exceeded the savins: in the coal bill), under the new conditions the whole excess of prime cost compared with a steam plant came down to about jEIO per horse-power, the interest on which, say Ms. a year, was small as compared with tho cost of coal and stokers' wages—say <C 3 for each horse-power per year. To utilise the tidal energy now running waste all round our coasts, all we have to dp is to take the map of these islands and couple up the great estuaries opposite "no another—Severn and Thames, Dee anil H.umber or Wash, Forth and Clyde, and so forth. The first, would supply cheap power .to the, Birmingham and London districts, the second to T-anc-ashire and' Ihe West Biding* tho third to Glasgow and the Scottish 'manufacturing districts, and though it may not be possible to locate siles capable of giving more than U'fl,ooo-horse-power continuously to each 'at .least,. I will, not answer "for more), ■ tho-dimimitrinvo* the''drain on our coalfields would be .very appreciable indeed, and would certainly render anv riso of waq-es to tho miners, exceedingly' problematical.