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Alternative Energy in the 1870's

Fascinating website tracing the history of wave and tide powered power plants built in San Francisco and Santa Cruz:

A Brief History of Wave and Tidal Energy Experiments in San Francisco and Santa Cruz
In 2003 the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution allowing for a tidal energy pilot project in the bay. The project, sponsored by Board President Matt Gonzalez gained little attention until a few months later when he jumped into the mayoral race at the last minute. Tidal energy was included in his platform and appeared on his campaign literature. As a result, the project was discussed in mayoral debates and articles written about Gonzalez included tidal energy. The project gained praise from some and ridicule from others.

And while this was happening, San Franciscans were for the first time in over a hundred years entertaining electricity from the ocean as a legitimate solution to some of their power problems.

In California the idea of power from the ocean has been pursued since the 1870's. Experiments have taken place as far south as Imperial Beach near the Mexico border and as far north as Trinidad, in Humboldt County. The two biggest successes were built in the 1890's in San Francisco and Santa Cruz.

Although there have been many failures, the perseverance of these early Californians sheds light on their ingenuity to make use of their landscape and resources. Their efforts were chronicled by their local newspapers and many of these anonymous newspaper reporters did an excellent job of reporting on the drama and aspirations that surrounded many of these machines.

Seen over time, what begins as a dream and run of unsuccessful pursuits appears to look more like the steady progression of an evolving knowledge and improved technology.

Four pages of wonderful stories and pictures with a lot of notes and reference materials. A great read. Here is one scheme: Posted by DaveH at May 7, 2009 7:59 PM