Επιμέλεια: Εύα Πετροπούλου Λιανού
Timothée Bordenave for Dr. Khetarpal. Translation from French, to the destination of the Afflatus Peer Review.
The idea I will present to you here next is again mechanical. It consists of the construction of an automatic naval engine.
The sea is always in motion, and a boat on it is even more so because the waves impart their movements to it, which it echoes, along with its own, as pitching and rolling are two examples…
Thus, the current, the wind, the swell, and atmospheric pressure are factors of marine movement, potentially infinite and perpetual. They move a boat by nature, all the time, and this boat reacts to them both by its course and by inertia.
The same goes for a buoy, for example, or a spar. This same reflection is also very valid for them.
Now, having bought myself an automatic watch some time ago, whose engine is powered by the wearer’s body movements, through a system of weights, balance wheels, and springs…
I quickly realized that one could very easily design a similar automatic system, which, by sensing the movements of the sea, would propel a naval vessel or assist in its propulsion, or its autonomy.
If weights, perhaps ballast tanks, activate a balance wheel, and if this balance wheel winds springs that, in turn, drive the propellers, we would have a vessel propelled by automatic movement, always operational, clean, silent, and probably just as efficient as if it were powered by combustion.
A ship that would thus require no fuel supply, or would require less of it, and whose automatic engine would not pollute by definition.
Having presented this idea some time ago, I know that tests have been conducted and have proven successful.
Training naval engineers and mechanics in this clockwork engine would undoubtedly be easy, and given the reliability of the automation systems we know, boats powered in this way would undoubtedly be safer and easier to maintain than those equipped with a conventional engine.
Automatic naval engines would soon prove essential for pleasure boating, the merchant navy, or the military, I think today.
An engine of this kind could also be designed to recharge an electric battery, which could be used to run the vessel as an alternative to the automation system, or during maintenance. As a “safety” feature. Or a “backup.”
This innovation would undoubtedly contribute greatly to the preservation of marine ecosystems, to repeat it again… It seems obvious to me.
We still have many technical possibilities for innovation in the marine sector. I’ll highlight two here first, both of which are already well developed, but which I want to promote.
First, the Triton snorkel technology, invented by a French company, allows a diver to breathe underwater through their snorkel like a fish does with its gills. This technology exists, but it’s still in its infancy.
Triton snorkels with air filters should be used much more widely in the future, in my opinion, particularly by naval teams. France, where this recent invention was developed, will undoubtedly benefit from equipping its navy with them—the first!
Next, and very briefly, I wanted to tell you about another of my old ideas that has recently begun to take shape: placing nets at the mouths of rivers and streams to stop pollution before it spreads into the sea.
This has already been tested, particularly in France, and has proven very convincing. The volunteer organization “Ocean Clean Up” was able to benefit from this idea, and its test results are—as you may know—extraordinary, excellent!
Indeed, the pollution found in the sea, such as plastics, does not come from human activity on the sea itself, but rather from cities inland, and it is carried by rivers and streams that flow into the sea.
This river pollution could be easily stopped simply by placing anti-pollution nets in the currents at the mouths of these waterways, and we could as well make a lot of money by recovering and recycling this waste, particularly plastics.
One last idea presented here to you now, regarding the sea: we could very easily, and we should even consider, exploiting marine phytoplankton for its nutritional properties.
Phytoplankton is, in other words, plant plankton. It is edible and has very interesting nutritional qualities, similar to those of meat.
Phytoplankton is very common in the sea and distributed all around the globe. Even more so today than in the past, according to oceanologists, if I’m not mistaken.
We could therefore fish a lot of it easily, using specially designed, adapted nets.
This wouldn’t, one might think, endanger or bother marine wildlife, which swims in other waters, and at other sea levels, than where this phytoplankton is most abundant.
It would then be possible to feed plant plankton to our cattle, instead of meal, for example, as fodder. And other uses could, of course, be imagined…
This would re-arm fishing fleets, and could even benefit marine ecosystems, in my opinion. Particularly because, as an alternative to our traditional fish fishing, it would help us regulate marine populations, some of which are known to be threatened!
(…)
Thank you for your kind offer to contribute to these intellectual exchanges.
These two texts {The Electricity Fairy} and {You will cherish the Sea} appear in the first two chapters of my short essay, “God Keep You!”, published in France from Orange five years ago.
I am your devoted and humble friend,
Timothée Bordenave
In Paris, France
