The Forgotten Art of Electric Vehicles

Although electric cars were one of the earliest inventions, the fashion for them passed quickly. The development of electricity as a source of energy for humanity passed with great contradictions.

Thomas A. Edison was the first who started selling electrical systems (ie electric generators) having some kind of commercial value. His research and his inventive talent allowed him to develop DC systems. These systems were equipped with ships, municipalities began to illuminate the streets. At that time, Edison was the only source of electricity!

While the commercialization of electricity was gaining momentum, Edison hired a man who had brought unprecedented scientific talent to the world and developed completely new approaches to electricity. This man was a foreigner Nikola Tesla . His work overshadowed even Edison himself! While Edison was a great experimenter, Tesla was a great theoretician. Edison's constant experiments irritated him somewhat.

Tesla preferred to calculate the possibility of a process mathematically, than to immediately grasp the soldering iron and constantly experiment. So, one day, after another heated argument, he left the laboratory of Edisson in West Orange, New Jersey.

Working independently Tesla thought out and created the first generator of a direct current. He, and only him, is responsible for all the benefits that we enjoy today thanks to AC power.

Angered by Edison in the early 1900s, Tesla sold his new patents to George Westinghaus for $ 15 million. Tesla became completely independent after which he continued his research in his laboratory on 5th Avenue in New York.

George Westinghouse began to trade this new system of power generators by creating competition for Edison. Westinghouse won, thanks to the obvious advantage of the new generators compared to the less efficient Edisson generators. Today, AC is the only source of electricity for world consumption and, please remember, Nikola Tesla is the person who made it accessible to people.

Now, as for the early development of electric vehicles. The electric car has a number of advantages that noisy, capricious, smoky cars with internal combustion engines can not offer.

First of all - the absolute silence that accompanies the vase when traveling in an electric car. There is not even a hint of noise. Just turn the key and press the pedal - as the vehicle starts moving immediately. No rattling at the beginning, no gear changes, no fuel pumps and problems with them, no oil levels, etc. Just turn the switch and go!

The second is a sense of power and submissiveness of the engine. If you want to increase the speed - just push the pedal, and no jerk while doing this. Release the pedal and the vehicle immediately slows down. You always fully control the management. It is not difficult to understand why these vehicles were so popular at the turn of the century and almost until 1912.

The big inconvenience of these cars was their range and the need for recharging every night. All these electric vehicles used a series of batteries and DC motors. The batteries required recharging every night and the range of travel was limited to about 100 miles.

This restriction was not serious at the beginning of this century. Doctors began to drive out on electric cars because they no longer needed horses just to drive the car into the electrical socket for the night! No movement does not interfere with getting a net profit.

Many of the large department stores in the metropolitan areas began to use electric vehicles to deliver goods. They were quiet and did not emit any contaminants. Maintenance of electric vehicles was minimal. City life promised a great future for an electric car. However, pay attention, all electric cars worked on direct current.

There were two things that put an end to the popularity of the electric vehicle. Everyone subconsciously craved for speed, which captured all the auto-enthusiasts of that era. Each manufacturer sought to show how far his car could go and what his highest speed was.

Built by Colonel Vanderbilt, the first solid circular race with straight sections in Long Island became the embodiment of the passion for "beautiful life." Newspapers constantly publish reports about new records at speeds. And, of course, car manufacturers were on hand to take advantage of the promotional effect of these new speed peaks. All this created the image of electric vehicles as vehicles for old ladies or retired gentlemen.

Electric vehicles could not reach speeds of 45 or 50 miles per hour. This would not emit their batteries. Maximum speeds from 25 to 35 miles per hour. Could be maintained for a moment or so. Usually, the cruising speed - depending on traffic conditions, was 15 to 20 miles per hour. For the standards of the years from 1900 to 1910, it was an acceptable speed to get satisfaction from the electric vehicle.

Please note that none of the manufacturers of electric cars have ever used a DC generator. This would allow feeding a small battery charge, while driving and thus increase the range of its run. It was seen as a kind of perpetual motion machine and certainly was absolutely impossible! In fact, DC generators could work successfully and help the survival of electric vehicles.

As mentioned earlier, G. Westinghouse's alternating current electrical equipment sold was distributed throughout the country. Earlier DC systems were removed and ignored. (As a curious remark: The United Edison Company in New York still uses one of Edison's direct current generators installed at its 14th power plant and it still works!)

At about the specified time, another giant corporation was formed and entered into the production of alternating current equipment - General Electric. This put an end to Edison's power supply systems as a commercial means of generating and distributing electricity.

Electric cars were not adapted to accommodate multiphase motors (alternating current), since they used batteries as a power source, their disappearance was predetermined. No battery can produce alternating current. Of course, a converter could be used to convert current to alternating current, but the size of the corresponding equipment at that time was too large to be placed on cars.

So, oklo 1915, the electric car has sunk into oblivion. True, United Parcel Service is still using several electric trucks in New York today, but most of their vehicles use gasoline or diesel. Today, electric mobiles are dead - they are seen as dinosaurs of the past.

But, let us stop for a moment to consider the advantages of using electricity as a means of transport of vehicles. Serving them is absolutely minimal. Oil is almost not required for the engine.

There is no oil to replace, no radiator to clean and fill, no gears to get dirty, no fuel pumps, no water pumps, no problems with the carburetor, no crank mechanisms to rot or replace and no impurities emitted in atmosphere. Is not this the answer that everyone seems to be looking for!

Therefore, these two problems facing us, low speed with a small distance of movement and replacement by a constant AC current can already be solved. With today's technology, this no longer seems insurmountable. In fact, this problem has already been solved in the past. The distant past. And not very distant. Stop! Think about it for a few moments before continuing!

Somewhat earlier in this article, I mentioned a person, Nicolas Tesla and stated that he was the greatest genius that ever lived. The US Patent Office has 1,200 patents registered on behalf of Nikola Tesla, and it is estimated that he could patent an additional 1,000 or so from memory!

But back to our electric cars - in 1931, with the funding of Pierce-Arrow and George Westinghouse. In 1931 Pierce-Arrow was selected to be tested in factory territories in Buffalo, NY The standard internal combustion engine was removed and 80 hp. 1800 rpm electric motor, was installed on the coupling to the gear. The AC motor was 100 cm long and 75 cm in diameter. The energy that fed it was "in the air" and no more power supplies.

At the appointed time, Nikola Tesla arrived from New York and inspected the car Pierce-Arrow. Then he went to the local radio store and bought 12 radio tubes, wires and different resistors. The box had dimensions of 60 cm long, 30 cm wide and 15 cm high. After fixing the box behind the driver's seat, he attached the wires to the brushless air-cooled engine. Two rods with a diameter of 0.625 mm. And about 7.5 cm long protruded from the box.

Tesla took the driver's seat, connected the two terminals and said, "Now we have energy." He pressed the pedal and the car drove off!

This vehicle powered by an AC motor developed up to 150 km / h and had characteristics better than any car with an internal combustion engine at that time! One week was spent on testing the vehicle. Several newspapers in Buffalo reported this test.

When asked: "where does the energy come from?", Tesla replied: "From the ether around us all." People were saying that Tesla was insane and somehow in league with the sinister forces of the universe. Tesla became angry, he removed the mysterious box from the vehicle and returned to his laboratory in New York. His secret is gone with him!

Here I would like to note that accusations of magic constantly accompanied Tesla's activities. His lectures in New York were very popular, and people who were far from physics came. And not only because Tesla had the ability to explain physical laws in simple human language analogies, but rather because during the lectures he demonstrated experiments that even today could cause surprise among students of radio electronics departments, not that of ordinary inhabitants.

For example, Tesla extracted from his portfolio a small transformer, working at high voltage and alternating current of high frequency with extremely low current strength. When he turned it around he began to wriggle lightning, while he calmly caught them with his hands, while people from the first places in the hall hurriedly moved back. This trick is more fun than sawing a person.

Also a good show was an experiment with light bulbs. Tesla turned on his transformer and the usual light bulb began to glow in his hands. This already caused astonishment. When he took out a light bulb from the briefcase, it was just an empty bulb, and she was still glowing - there was no limit to the listeners' astonishment, and otherwise they could not explain it with mass hypnosis or magic.

"Focuses" with light bulbs can be explained simply if you know some laws. As Tesla wrote, at a certain vibration frequency, the discharged air conducts current as well or even better than a copper wire. Of course, this would be impossible if there was no single wave environment ("ether"). In the absence of air, the ether becomes a pure conductor, whereas air only interferes, because it is an insulator.

Some researchers are attracted to the explanation of the Tesla electric vehicle's work on the Earth's magnetic field, which Tesla could use in his generator. It is possible that using the scheme of high-frequency high-voltage alternating current, Tesla tuned it into resonance with the oscillations of the "pulse" of the Earth (about 7.5 hertz). In this case, obviously, the oscillation frequency in its circuit should be as high as possible, remaining at the same time a multiple of 7.5 hertz (more precisely - between 7.5 and 7.8 hertz).