Sts 3700 – Lecture 12 – Alternatives to the Internal Combustion Automobile
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- Steam, Electricity and Internal Combustion
- Internal Combustion Development
- Steam Cars
- Internal Combustion Cars
- Kirsch’s Argument
- The Rise of the Internal Combustion Automobile
| STS 3700 – Lecture 12 – Alternatives to the Internal Combustion Automobile,
- Automobile pervasive & integrated in North America - Licensing & operating costs, freedom & prosperity, urbanization - Gasoline, greenhouse gasses, number of cars - Changing design “technological fix”, changing use “social fix”
- Competition between electric, gas & steam cars at turn of century - 1898 New York Sun article, At that busy corner, Grand Street and the Bowery, there may be seen cars propelled by five different methods of propulsion – by steam, by cable, by underground trolley, by storage battery and by horses. [Kirsch, 11] - 1885 Gottlieb Daimler & Carl Benz, liquid benzene engines - 1887, Rudolph Diesel added compressed fuel injection - First electric car in 1894, electric cabs in NY in 1897
- Electricity: EM theory, trams, lighting, power, batteries - Internal combustion parasitic on existing science technology - Chemical industry & petroleum, internal combustion & tradition Internal Combustion Development- IC less reliable & efficient than steam or electric - IC technological achievement, Rudolf Diesel, … traced the origin of the engine he invented to his training at the Munich polytechnic. In 1878 he heard a lecture there on Carnot’s theorem concerning the ideal conditions for expansion of gases in an engine’s cylinder… this ideal, as he later wrote, ‘pursued me incessantly’. [Pacey, 172] - Science and technology, analysis of steam engine data - Temperature and heat engine efficiency, gasoline
- Science (chemistry, thermodynamics, electromagnetism), and technology (steam engines & electric motors) - Competition between horse & automobile “In the late 1890’s horses passed between 800,000 and 1.3 million pounds of manure each day in New York City” - Technological fix for horse pollution, expense, operation in heat & cold, range & speed, population, manufacturing & production
- Boiler explosions, stigma, gasoline, kerosene, wood or coal - Pure water, unreliable, expensive to fix, and too dangerous
Electric Cars- Flexibility, power, stopping and restarting, commercial use - 1909, 4000 charging stations in US, standardization - Industry interest, battery storage capacity, charging times - Automobiles and rail shipping, expanding markets - Expert maintenance, private and commercial clients
- Breakdowns, simplicity, technical knowledge and repair - Fuel impurities, standard fuel, gasoline & kerosene for heating - Touring and infrastructure investment - Standardization of parts, “American system of manufacture” - 1913, Henry Ford, mass production with standardized parts - WWII, military chose internal combustion, range and simplicity
- Oil analyzed by chemists, commercial applications - Electric lighting & kerosene, IC & demand for gasoline - Gasoline: low flash point and a high temperature of combustion - Complex, heavy, long chain molecules, must be “cracked” or broken down to produce lighter kerosene and gasoline - 1911, cracking methods with high temperatures & pressures - Improvements eliminated “knock”, increased efficiency & purity
- Private users: range, simplicity; ease of fuelling - Electrical industry ignored car market, failed to standardize - Oil industry saw demand for cars, innovated to meet needs - Businesses liked range & reliability for growing urban population - Military adoption of gasoline engine gave it early support - Chemical improvements: cheap, plentiful and efficient fuel - Population growth, cheap automobiles, the desire to travel - Expanding urban population demanded products & services
- Gasoline cars & breakdowns (knock, stalling, general), repair - Improvements expected for electric, success of industry - Consumers adopted IC while waiting, improvements in efficiency The Rise of the Internal Combustion Automobile- 1913 - 1929, annual car & truck manufacturing increased from 1/2M to 4.5M+, most internal combustion - By 1914 35,000 electric & 1.5M internal combustion cars. - Federal, state & industrial investment in car infrastructure: roads, fuel, repair facilities, parking lots, traffic police, courts, insurance - 1927, annual car-related deaths 21,000+, injuries higher - WWII, postwar industrialization & rising populations - 1970’s oil price shocks, production & design, demand Lessons from the Past - People expect long distance travel, speed, standardized parts - Industry, commerce, labor and urban development and car - Performance requirements and infrastructure. - Cars & the electricity grid, traffic volume & accidents Download 14.87 Kb. Share with your friends:
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