664 G. New Patents OLR (1984) 31 i9)

Artificial seaweed or reefs for installation on the bottoms of lakes or the like to build up sandbars to reclaim beaches and reclaim coastal land has elongated hollow tubes partially filled with sand, silt or other lake bottom material to lie sta- tionary on the lake bottom in spaced side-by-side relation at a selected orientation relative to the shore line and connectd by anchor means for buoyant sheets or ribbons which will float upright in the water to trap sand and sediment for building up sandbars and reefs on the lake bottom. In one embodiment, the side-by-side hollow tubes are formed along the side edges of a wide sheet of plastics material which is slit at selected intervals and the buoyant sheets or rib- bons are threaded through these slits providing a pair of upstanding buoyant legs in spaced rela- tion. In another embodiment, the tube connected by strands or filament receiving looped ends of the buoyant sheets or ribbons in end-to-end relation. The seaweed or reef is con- veniently deployed from a travelling boat or barge which fills the tubes with sand or sediment as they are lowered into the water.

4437989

APPARATUS FOR COLLECTING SUBSTANCE~S FLOATING ON AN

EXPANSE OF LIQUID

Bernard Valibouse, Grenoble, France assigned to Societe Anonyme dite: Alsthom-Atlantique

I

) I

i

The apparatus includes a separator (2) and a col- lector trough (3) which are driven by the move- ment of a ship (1) wherein according to the invention, the separator is constituted by a long narrow plate which extends along the outside of the ship and forms an acute angle theta relative to the direction of movement of the ship, said separator plate being associated with means which allow it to be kept partially submerged and being inclined at an angle of incident alpha relative to the surface of the water, the collector being constituted by a trough (3) placed against the side of the ship and communicating with an inner chamber. The invention applies more par- ticularly to recuperating hydrocarbons split out at sea.

4438343

WAVE POWER GENERATOR

John P Marken

l ill Z.l

An apparatus for converting the wave motion of a body of water to electrical energy includes a housing having a pair of opposed counter rotating shafts mounted to a common output shaft for driving the output shaft in a single direction and includes counterweights for restraining the shafts against rotation during oscillation of the housing about the axis of the shafts for thereby converting oscillating motion of the housing into intermittent unidirectional motion of the two counter rotating shafts and a substantially continuous motion of the output shaft which is connected to a generator unit for generating electrical energy. A torque storage spring is utilized to store the rotary energy and maintain a substantially constant speed output of the shaft to the electrical generator. The ap- paratus is self-contained within the housing that may be selectively mounted in a proper position on a boat or other floating structure and ori- ented to take advantage of the predominant roll or pitch of the structure for converting that mo- tion into the required rotary output motion.

4439058

ASYMMETRIC SEAWEEDS

Bernard J Le Mehaute assigned to University ot Miami

An artificial seaweed, or asymmetric seaweed. system for preventing shoreline erosion and/or causing sand accretion on beaches under wave action.