Oil Upon Waves.

Feilding Star, Volume IV, Issue 43, 13 September 1883, Page 3

Oil Upon Waves.

In reply to an objection of Admiral j Bourgeois that the acual efF.ct of oil upon waves should be fully tested before it is submit'ed to theoretical analysis, M.G. Vander Mensbruggbe replies that he has shown from incontestable facts that the wind produces upon the superficial layer of th- sea a horizontal motion of translation, which being sufficiently prolonged, can communicate to the deeper layers and can propagate to a great distance very decided undulations. He ha. confined himself to a discussion of two cases; in the first, where the calm sea is covered with a thin layer of oil, and is then submitted to the action of the wind ; in the second, where the waves break. In the first case tbe formation of great waves is rendered impossible by the presence of the layer of oii. Jn the second, a simple calculation shows that the layer of oil exerts a great resistance at tiie base ot the breaker, and thus compels it to extend itself and to subside very rapidly without producing severe wave shocks. — Camples Rendus.