As you can see, I’m still researching wave motors, particularly their development along the California coast line at the turn of the century. I’m particularly interested in the pods of inventors in San Francisco and Los Angeles from about 1890-1910.
These 11 men each had at least part of a wave power patent assigned to him right around 1890. The amount of information available on any of them is just vanishingly small. Terrence Duffy and Emil Gerlach were also working on wave motors around the Bay Area. So, we’ve got 13 people working on the same technology in the same city — and not a shred of any evidence to tie them together. Tough.
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Arthur W. Dowe |
W.G. Rifenberg |
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Henry E. Thomas |
F.H. Hausman |
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George F. Day |
Ernest H. Cole |
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Edward D. Stodder |
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Henry P. Holland |
J.A. Fischer |
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James M. Dyer |
Agostino Sciaroni |
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Links from an upcoming SF History site. Great resources.
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“Free online access to the Golden State’s historical newspapers”
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An unnamed inventor’s new wave motor from 1915
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Another Santa Cruz Wave Motor history.
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SciAm on the Santa Cruz Wave Motor
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Bummer entry. “The history of all other devices that have been tried is more or less similar, and educated engineers have come to regard the wave motors as akin to the perpetual motion delusion.”
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Carton 146, Folder 54
American Wave Motor Power Co. 1915-1916 -
Down at UC-Irvine, there are photos of Merrill Rice’s 1897 trial of his wave motor.
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Unnamed inventor working near Cliff House to bring 50,000 or 60,000 horsepower to S.F. instead of steam. – San Francisco News Letter and California Advertiser, January 8, 1887
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Nice write-up by Chris Jepsen of the Spangler wave motor, apparently tested “at the end of the wharf in Newport Beach.”
I spent many years researching early wave motors in California. The links below are to my articles on the subject.
http://www.outsidelands.org/wave-motor.php
and
http://www.outsidelands.org/wave-tidal3.php
Hope you find them useful in your research.
Christine! Great to hear from you. I know your articles well. They are fantastic and a wonderful way to dive into the story I was trying to tell. If you’re still doing research, I have some good resources — the incorporation documents of some companies, the wave power patent database, etc — if you haven’t found them already. Anyway, feel free to get in touch at alexis.madrigal@gmail.com. I’d love to talk shop with you.