In fact, we had a golden era of the zero-emissions, quiet electric car for approximately 30 years circa 1900. I have made rather a study of it (still in progress). If you want to learn more, I heartily recommend my webpages on the subject, beginning at: http://www.econogics.com/ev/evhistry.htm
As for the Tesla electric car, I can only wish and dream the story is true and not apocryphal (and that we can stumble upon the secret again). However, given the amount of power that vacuum tubes of the period could typically handle (and especially the type that would have been in stock in a local store), I remain skeptical about this story. Yes, he could have built an inverter, but I don't see how it could have handled the power to travel in a heavy vehicle with poor aerodynamics at over 90 mph with typical vacuum tubes of the period. For 80 hp, we are talking about 60,000 watts. Assuming a 3-phase inverter (3-phase AC being Tesla's trademark), using 12 tubes, that's 4 tubes per phase. With 2 tubes for the negative side and two tubes for the positive side for each phase, that means each tube (if perfectly balanced) would have to handle 30,000 watts (each phase has to be able to handle the full rated power). If high voltage were available in the ether, I suspect organisms such as ourselves would have serious issues. So, that leaves high current as the alternative, again, not friendly to typical vacuum tubes. I welcome the opportunity to be convinced otherwise, preferably with a working model that is available for demonstration and examination. Darryl McMahon Rexis Tree wrote: > http://www.uncletaz.com/library/scimath/tesla/teslacar.html > > Facinating, we had an era of electric car in the pass. > > Nikola Tesla is the reason we are using AC power today. He invented an > electric car power source that require no charging and can power an 80hp car > to 90 mph. > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Biofuel mailing list > Biofuel@sustainablelists.org > http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): > http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ > -- Darryl McMahon http://www.econogics.com It's your planet. If you won't look after it, who will? _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
