A FLOATING BREAKWATER.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1118, 28 November 1883, Page 2

A FLOATING BREAKWATER.

The Kentish Mercury of September 22 gives the following description of a very novel and ingenious floating break-' water, a model of which has been oh view at the Fisheries Exhibition;

The formation of a floating breakwater for the purpose of protecting harbonrs of refuge and other exposed portions of bur coast has long been one of the dreams of inventors. Whether the problem is yet solved may be an open question, ■ but one of the latest efforts to do so is exhibited at the. Fisheries • Exhibition, and has certainly the merit of ingenuity. The breakwater consists of a lino of buoys’ of triangular shape, Avith two concave sides. Those buoys: jire , expected to cleave the waves and .to divert the portions right and left. Between •each pair of buoys' these diverted portions meet in collision,, and. .thus expend upon each other mostof their momentum. Flouting, at these buoys do, 10ft deep, Uhey divert not merelythe surface of the \ water, bpta mass of lOftindepth ; ; sp that* anotheiftfl below this mass being naturally' •dragged with it, 15ft in depth of every great roller,]is diverted.,M Below this 15ft it is:well;known, that there is’-CouH ; paraliydy \ stilly water. As compared with the usual methods of protecting harbours and forming: anchorages for 'vessels,' this invention claims to’ be superior in many ways. It can be constructed and placed in -position: in six‘months’ time in the most exposed places. It can bo removed, when the necessity for its. use is past, with the greatest facility ; any injury can be remedied ;by simply substituting an uninjured buoy for the injured one; and above and beyond : all other considerations, the relative cost of the buoys and their accompanying-anchors and cables, and The expense of placing them is stated to be less than one fiftieth part of the cost of the same extent of works constructed of stone or concrete.