this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2024
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[–] ch00f@lemmy.world 90 points 1 month ago (4 children)

From a 110 year old book I picked up recently:

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 27 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I'm fairly convinced that the reason internal combustion won - even though it would regularly break your wrist when you started it - was that it made loud noises.

Back then cars were a luxury, and if you're buying something flashy you want people to notice you. A gasoline engine sputtering down the road would draw far more attention than an electric motor, so people bought those.

[–] grandkaiser@lemmy.world 32 points 1 month ago (1 children)

From an engineering standpoint, liquid fuels have a far greater energy-to-weight ratio than batteries. Some of the largest advancements in combustion engines for the purpose of conveyance were made during the world wars. Noise was something they actively fought against. Loud tanks are scary, but unexpected tanks are much scarier. If they really needed it to be loud, sirens exist (see: Jericho siren). The energy-to-weight problem is only now finally being solved via modern batteries using exotic materials and processes well outside of early 1900's technology.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's the textbook answer but I think mine is more fun.

[–] grandkaiser@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oh certainly! I only felt the need to add the textbook answer because of the... Conspiratorial side of Lemmy that will happily believe misleading information as long as it confirms pre-existing biases.

[–] laurelraven@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's too late, I've already accepted the other response as accurate gospel

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[–] ch00f@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago

Fun to remember that Mr. Toad was a parody of all the dicks who drove cars.

[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (5 children)

A gasoline engine sputtering down the road would draw far more attention than an electric motor, so people bought those.

They're still doing exactly this. ICE designs have never been quieter, but meanwhile Ford and GM are pumping out the L O U D E S T car options in decades.

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[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago (4 children)

It’s interesting to see this and be reminded that 110 years ago electricity was more readily available than gasoline. It took time for gas stations to become widespread. Even in the post-WWII era it was not uncommon for drivers to encounter signs warning that the last gas station was approaching and there would be no more for another 60+ miles (100+ kilometers, I suppose). It took decades to expand the gasoline distribution network.

In one sense electric vehicles are in the same boat today, at least in the US. From the standpoint of being able to charge at home, electric is more convenient and current models on sale likely have more than enough range for most people’s daily (or probably even weekly) commute. The cost advantage is also still there when charging at home. However, if you’re going on a roadtrip you’re much more likely to face long stretches without a fast charger, and probably no signs on the road warning you. It’s up to drivers to plan ahead to make sure they’ll have enough charge to make the next charger (and potentially have a backup location in case their first choice is full or broken). With the ubiquity of gas stations, and perhaps even more so GPS navigation on our phones, most drivers aren’t used to doing much planning when going on road trips anymore.

What is the title and who is the author of this book?

[–] ch00f@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Storage Batteries Stationary and Portable by J.T. Niblett, M. I. E. E. Copyright 1911/1912.

Looks like Archive's got it: https://archive.org/details/storage_batteries_1912/page/n3/mode/2up

[–] laurelraven@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 month ago

What's funny about that is it took, as you said, decades to expand the infrastructure for gas, needing stations and storage tanks and fuel trucks to deliver the gas... Electric's infrastructure needs... Um... Charging stations. Installed where there's already electricity.

People act like it's a major hurdle, but it's actually a much, much smaller one than gas had to overcome.

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[–] thebigslime@lemmy.world 75 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The future was stolen from us a century ago.

[–] Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world 28 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I remember learning from a teacher that the oil companies basically bought up transit lines and ripped up streetcar tracks as well as killing the electric car. It explains why my city struggles so hard to build subways and street car lines. There must still be lots of money lining pockets to keep the gasoline flowing

[–] meowMix2525@lemm.ee 6 points 1 month ago

Yep, big oil, auto manufacturers (who wanted to line their pockets), and politicians (who wanted to suburbanize / facilitate white flight from the cities) all colluded to divide the American public with dangerous roads and freeways, and sell us the machinery we'd need to navigate them.

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[–] Magister@lemmy.world 68 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ever heard of the first car reaching 100km/h? Yep, an electric one, in 1899, "la jamais contente"

[–] Rubanski@lemm.ee 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Must have been pretty terrifying riding that vehicle! Was red bull a thing back then?

[–] Banik2008@infosec.pub 7 points 1 month ago

No, but red wine was

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 48 points 1 month ago (3 children)
[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 61 points 1 month ago (1 children)

God, imagine the trouble we could've saved if battery technology was less primitive at the time.

[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 70 points 1 month ago (3 children)

imagine where battery tech would be if we never started burning bones for power.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 38 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Imagine if that first ape that climbed down from the trees went "Nah." And climbed back up.

[–] SexualPolytope@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)
[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 month ago

Hearing nothing but positives so far.

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[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Pedantic, but most fossil fuels are from plant matter.

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[–] Buelldozer 14 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Not much different than it is now. Batteries are used by a large number of industries in a wide variety of products and mind bogglingly vast sums of money have been spent on improving them for the last century.

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[–] laranis@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 month ago

Not yet... few more years of climate change and those of us left will welcome the reliability and independence afforded by the horse. We'll get there!

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[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 28 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Mr. Roger's also did a whole show on riding around in one of his buddies electric cars.

[–] AJ1@lemmy.ca 23 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Here, allow me to put that errant apostrophe where it belongs:

*Rogers

*buddy's

You're welcome. I'll take my downvotes now.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Pretty sure it would be "one of his buddies'" and not "one of his buddy's" because it's "one of his buddies" that had a car.

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[–] DJDarren@thelemmy.club 25 points 1 month ago (5 children)
[–] rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

It was the same people who made Steve Guttenberg a star.

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[–] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I miss big clunky levers, switches and dials. All the best tech went CHAWNK.

[–] noughtnaut@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

There's a bit from Clarkson where he compares an old school aluminium-bodied Land Rover to the newfangled SUV things of the same brand. Used to be, switching to 4WD involved pulling a lever connected to a ferry-sized piece of metal going ka-chunk. Nowadays, you press a button and a red light comes on. How is that going to get you out of a ditch?

[–] Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

There's an 80 year old HVAC system in a section of the hospital I used to work at. This thing is just a giant radiator with big clunky fans that blow the heat from it into the unit. To power it on in winter you have to use all those cool old dials and crank it up. That thing I don't think has ever needed any major repairs and will last forever because it's so simple.

I now work in a newer condo building and the boilers and heating system is all digitally controlled and regulated. That thing goes down every other week and needs constant work

[–] PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 month ago

Fucking legend

[–] kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I would love to know the power capacity & range for these cars

[–] Yaky@slrpnk.net 26 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The cars were advertised as reliably getting 80 miles (130 km) between battery recharging, although in one test a Detroit Electric ran 211.3 miles (340.1 km) on a single charge. Top speed was only about 20 mph (32 km/h), but this was considered adequate for driving within city or town limits at the time.

From Wikipedia

[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Considering what roads were like at the time, and how far most people were from other things, 80 miles round-trip is plenty.

Heck, that's plenty nowadays for a lot of people.

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[–] Noobnarski@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

An electric car must have been pretty dirty back then. Most power was made by much less efficient coal generators after all.

I am not saying that this is still the case today, quite the opposite.

(Although no car is always better than a car)

[–] boonhet@lemm.ee 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Well yeah, but an ICE car would've been pretty dirty too. For how light the cars were, they used a lot of fuel, and there was no emissions equipment whatsoever.

We've gotten pretty good at ICE efficiency. It's not as good as EV efficiency, but it's come a LONG way in the last 100+ years.

[–] Aoife@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] bitchkat@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

That came a few years after this photo was taken.

[–] leadore@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

She even has a phone in the garage. :)

[–] noughtnaut@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

I want to see a MUCH higher resolution version of this photo. To study both that Wall-mounted proton pack and that exquisite hat.

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