Dam-Atoll Video

Animated gif from the video, depicting the 1/100 working scale model of Dam-Atoll.

DAM-ATOLL

Dam-Atoll Video Clips

Video Clips Of Working Model Of Dam-Atoll:

Slideshow, the first slide of which shows a lighthouse that was unserendipitously built on a dome-like base. Because of the shape of the lighthouse's base, the waves around the lighthouse go crazy and surge towards the top of the lighthouse—an inadvertent consequence of wave refraction. The height and power of the waves show very directly how the proper shape of an atoll or island can concentrate enormous amounts of energy into a not-very-large piece of real estate. The slideshow then goes on to present various other aspects of Dam-Atoll.

Dam-Atoll videos on YouTube. Below, I point out what the various scenes illustrate.

Video clip showing: a) co-inventor Duane Morrow and a coworker lifting 1/100 working scale model of Dam-Atoll into a flat-bottom tank—the model was so sensitive that the turbine started spinning because the device picked up the slight wave motion generated by the two men in the pool; b) the device generating the waves in the tank; c) the size of the scale model in comparison with a toy boat (no, Mr. Wirt's grandsons never got their toy boat back), and d) wave motion getting turned into wheel motion.

Principle Inventor L.S. Wirt explaining why the name 'Dam-Atoll' suggested itself for the device.

Conference on Dam-Atoll featuring speakers Dr. Thomas Daniels (University of Hawaii), Dr. Philip Chow (T.Y. Lin International), Dr. Howard Wilcox (San Diego), and Dr. Robert Cannon (Stanford University). Wilcox: "I mean we saw movies that show that the turbine does turn and everything—hey, that's great." Cannon: "I'll tell you what my intuition tells me. My intuition tells me that one of two things is true...either Les really lucked out and his intuition was so good that he picked all the right numbers the first time, or—what would be very happy—it's not very sensitive to any of those numbers. That is, you could be off by tens of percent and you get about the same efficiency of operation. I suspect that that's probably true. I think he happened onto something that is pretty robust."

William Orvosh describing how Dam-Atoll gradually collects the wave front and smooths out the wave train.

L.S. Wirt, discussing the initial run of the 1/100 scale model of Dam-Atoll."We were enough in the ballpark that the thing took off and it worked like a charm. It worked from the first moment it was put into the water."

L.S. Wirt, discussing additional benefits of Dam-Atoll, such as its serving as a kind of break-water calming the waters of a harbour.

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Fourth video clip ending with turbine seen in slow motion.

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Wave Generator designed and built by Duane Morrow.

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Principle inventor of Dam-Atoll, Leslie Spencer Wirt, observing the testing of the 1/100 working scale model (the phase 0 working model). Mr. Wirt has long been renowned for drawing equations in the air with his pipe.

Video clip showing two toy , the first boat pitching violently (that is, as violently as toy boats can pitch) close to the Wave Generator, the second gently swaying in the "wave shadow" created by Dam-Atoll's absorption of the wave energy created by the Generator. One of the subsidiary benefits of Dam-Atoll consists in its possible use as a means of calming harbor waters. At one point, Mr. Wirt's grandsons, the original owners of the boats, threatened to petition the CEO of Lockheed for their return—to no avail.

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