Harnessing Wave Power

In August 2025 (OC Register 8/31/2025) AltaSea installed equipment on a pier at the Port of Los Angeles for a two-year test project to harness energy from ocean waves. In conjunction with Eco Wave Power, it was said to be the first onshore wave technology ever demonstrated in the United States.

Though it may be the first onshore technology, there were other efforts to harness wave power in Long Beach and other Southern California beach towns more than 100 years ago.

The names of Long Beach inventors E. Gerlach, C. A. Burrows, Alva Reynolds and H. P. Molander might have been as well-known as that of Thomas Edison if they had succeeded in their quest to capture the power of ocean waves. Unlike wind and solar power, waves are constantly in motion, generating power if only the proper equipment could be developed to utilize their energy.

Popular Mechanics summed up the pursuit: “It is difficult to conceive of any other device so much needed, and to whose inventor will come so large a reward of both fame and wealth.” (Press Telegram 2/24/1921)

From the 1890s to the early 1920s visitors to Long Beach were fascinated by the wave motor generators they could find in the city. The earliest was E. Gerlach’s full-sized working model housed at the end of the Pine Avenue Pier in 1894.

The wheel, which resembled a huge paddle wheel from a Mississippi riverboat, was 24 feet in diameter and 16 feet long. It had eight paddles, four of which were in the water, moving back and forth with incoming and outgoing. The power generated was used in operating a pump which forced sea water to an elevated tank. From there the water was piped back into a turbine wheel, which created power for running electric dynamos and other machinery.

What differentiated Gerlach’s invention from the 178 other wave motor patents in existence was the shaft and pulley were driven in only one direction by the paddles. Unfortunately, his wave motor just didn’t have enough “oomph” to pump seawater to the top of the high bluffs near the pier. The project was abandoned.

In 1908, Dr. Clinton A. Burrows approached the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, proposing to build his own pier near the end of the Pine Avenue Pier. He would then install his wave motor which he claimed would produce one hundred horsepower to transfer into electric light and power. In return, he asked for a contract to produce electricity for the city, and for permission to string electric wire to deliver his “wave generated” product to homes and businesses throughout Long Beach. He was granted permission.

Burrows’ wave machine consisted of a huge float suspended on wire cables that passed over ratchet wheels. With the incoming breakers the float was raised and lowered and by means of the cable the power could be transmitted to shafting which could be connected with any sort of machinery.

In September 1908, his machine attracted a large crowd, when the loud grinding sound it generated permeated the entire pier. The equipment worked, but hadn’t generated any power. Burrows lowered his expectation. His goal was to initially produce one horsepower of energy, hardly the one hundred he promised. Burrows said it would only be a matter of time before more power was produced. He also promised to oil the equipment.

Hard luck followed. In February 1909, heavy seas tore the motor from its moorings before it was fully functional. Long Beach was lucky. Its pier survived. Not so the one in Redondo Beach which housed the $100,000 ($3.56 million in 2024) “Starr Wave Generator.” The Daily Telegram reported Redondo Beach’s wave machine “went with a lump of sugar into the sea. The pier went first, until not even a scrap remained.” (2/13/1909)

The destruction in Redondo, experts surmised, couldn’t be attributed to high seas or strong waves. The fact was the pier was supporting too much weight. Fred Starr tried to rebuild, but investors weren’t interested.

In Long Beach, Burrows also faced financial problems. Besides losing equipment to heavy seas, what he had achieved did not live up to his promises. Burrows decided to give up his wave-generating venture. Instead, Burrows returned to Lemoore, California and his medical practice.

Part 2 of this 3-part series will feature Long Beach inventor Alva L. Reynolds, who not only invented a wave generator but perfected his “Common Sense Pile Protectors” to combat the teredos, shipworms known as termites of the sea, eating away wood pilings on piers.