WITH AID OF MODEL

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12610, 20 July 1935, Page 12

WITH AID OF MODEL

GIGANTIC DRAINAGE SCHEAIE

Every clay several young officials and research workers in Cambridge (England) ‘travel oevr the Wash,” a shallow Bate coast bay, on a. piece of wood. But then tlio AVasli they travel over, together with 35 miles . of the Riven Ouse, is* in a- room in Cambridge and tho young men are Great Ouse Catchment Board officials working on the world’s largest ‘scale model of a. tidal river. In the room, to the tcale of two feet to- a mile, there is an exact; contour model of the whole width of the Wash to a. dis tance ci ‘ 10 miles out toi sea, and many m U s of the Ouse and its surrounding country.

AVith the aid of tli ■ - model the officials are finding out how to drain the Feus and regulate tho applies of water coming down with the Oute. Near tho AYash the land is ■continually “shrinking” and it has be u found impossible to continue dr.-kn-ag© of the area under present conditions.

So the giant model was built. On it will he reproduced every tea to of tide and every .state of water in the river. Sitting found the . model, or travelling over it on the “bridge,*’ the officials will -see how the water is distributed when 1 tlio Ouse floods, or when there is a specially high tide. And they will try cut various methods op drainage, watching to see what effect their methods will have.

Thus by trial and error they hope to find a. perfect way of draining the marshy land around the AVash and the Ouse.

The tide on the model is caviled by the raising and lowering o,f a 12-J-ton plunger in a refeervoir said to. lie the largest in the world.