Introduction to Tides: The Tides of the Waters of New England and New York

Abstract

This interesting little book is not really about what its main title suggests, an introductory text on tides for oceanography students. Its subtitle gives more of a clue to its contents and intended readership. The author immediately points out in the preface that ‘this book is written for the many intelligent people who work or play along the coast between Sandy Hook and the Bay of Fundy.’In addition to discussing elementary tidal theory, the book describes in some detail the author's systematic analysis of coastal tides and currents in the New England and New York region. His analysis fits the solution of the telegrapher's equation to Tide Table predictions of tidal elevations and times of high water and slack current. In this way, Redfield separates the observed M2 tides in various straits, embayments, hydraulic channels, and estuaries into damped, progressive waves travelling in opposite directions. These waves arise through reflection of the primary wave at the head of an embayment or estuary, or through two primary waves entering a tidal strait or hydraulic channel from both ends.