. The street railway review . WRIGHT WAVE MOTOR AT POTENCIA. of 350 ft., at which point the swells usually begin to break,and three motor floats placed at the outer end. The energy of the waves is utilized by means of floatswhich operate vertical hydraulic compressors, or pump cyl-inders, which are in turn connected with a large storagepressure tank of heavy steel. The movement of the wavesraises and lowers these floats, and in doing so, pumps freshwater from a small reservoir into the pump cylinders andforces it into the storage pressure tank, where by compress-ing the air contained in the ta
. The street railway review . WRIGHT WAVE MOTOR AT POTENCIA. of 350 ft., at which point the swells usually begin to break,and three motor floats placed at the outer end. The energy of the waves is utilized by means of floatswhich operate vertical hydraulic compressors, or pump cyl-inders, which are in turn connected with a large storagepressure tank of heavy steel. The movement of the wavesraises and lowers these floats, and in doing so, pumps freshwater from a small reservoir into the pump cylinders andforces it into the storage pressure tank, where by compress-ing the air contained in the tank the water becomes sub-jected to a very heavy pressure. It flows out of the tankthrough a nozzle and impinges upon the buckets of a Peltonwater wheel, by which is driven the dynamo or other ma-chine to be operated. From the water wheel the waterflows back to the reservoir from which it was originally. THE WRIGHT WAVE MOTOR. taken, as is shown in the line drawing of the apparatus. The accumulated pressure in the pressure tank exertsitself upon the pump pistons, so as to offset the weight of the floats tending to draw such pistons down; the result is,that during storm periods, the floats ride upon the crest ofthe waves and are not permitted to drop into the trough ofthe sea. Mr. Wrigjit is the first inventor to overcome thisdifficulty, which has heretofore been considered insurmount-able. , The wharf at Potencia is a substantial structure with thethree floats placed side by side in a line at right angles toits length. When the plant is enlarged the plan is to placethe floats in three or more rows, as is indicated in the linedrawing. The half-tone engraving is from a photograph of the Po-tencia wharf and motors; when this was taken two only ofthe three floats were in operation. By reports of tests made on 16 consecutive days in De-cember last, during which the condition of the sea and
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Keywords: ., book, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectstreetrailroads
