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”
Kirsch and the Electric Car
- 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
Steam, Electricity and Internal Combustion
- Steam: 150 years, steam engines & trains, thermodynamics
- 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
The Competition
- 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
Steam Cars
- Lighter, high pressure & temperature for efficiency
- 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
Internal Combustion Cars
- IC engines light, high speeds, accidents, wear, social menace
- 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
Gasoline as a Fuel
- 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
Advantages of Internal Combustion
- 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
Kirsch’s Argument
- Electric car initially more flexible, comparable range & speed
- 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
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