The Sewerage of Sea Coast Towns by Adams, Henry C., 1873-1952

Wave motion consists only in a vertical movement of the particles of water by which a crest and trough is formed alternately, the crest being as much above the normal horizontal line as the trough is below it; and in the tidal waves this motion extends through the whole depth of the water from the surface to the bottom, but there is no horizontal movement except of form. The late Mr. J. Scott Russell described it as the transference of motion without the transference of matter; of form without the substance; of force without the agent.

The action produced by the sun and moon jointly is practically the resultant of the effects which each would produce separately, and as the net tide-producing effect of the moon is to raise a crest of water 1.4 ft above the trough, and that of the sun is 0.6 ft (being in the proportion of I to 0.445), when the two forces are acting in conjunction a wave 1.4 + 0.6 = 2 ft high is produced in the Southern Ocean, and when acting in opposition a wave 1.4 - 0.6 = 0.8 ft high is formed. As the derivative wave, consisting of the large mass of water set in motion by the comparatively small rise and fall of the primary wave, is propagated through the branch oceans, it is affected by many circumstances, such as the continual variation in width between the opposite shores, the alterations in the depth of the channels, and the irregularity of the coast line. When obstruction occurs, as, for example, in the Bristol Channel, where there is a gradually rising bed with a converging channel, the velocity, and/or the amount of rise and fall of the derivative wave is increased to an enormous extent; in other places where the oceans widen out, the rise and/or velocity is diminished, and similarly where a narrow channel occurs between two pieces of land an increase in the velocity of the wave will take place, forming a race in that locality.