I you missed the latest blacksmithing article in Sci Amer. It can be found here (2 pages) ->

http://www3.telus.net/public/benowak/SciAmer%20Sept%2021%201895%20-%20page%201.jpg

http://www3.telus.net/public/benowak/SciAmer%20Sept%2021%201895%20-%20page%202.jpg

Scans are a little large ...

brad

Brad - I really like the images of the forging sequence for the rose. In fact, I like it so much that I would like to put it in our blacksmith club newsletter. Are the links above to your server space, or to someone else's? I would like to get permission to use the scan in our newsletter, so anything you can tell me to lead to the source would be helpful.

Roger King

That is a very cool article. I also enjoyed the article that followed it about the electic "horseless vehicle" contest. If only they had continued to develop battery power then, we might not be in the mess we are today with petroleum use.

I am glad that you like the articles.

here are a couple of more:

http://www3.telus.net/public/benowak/SciAmer%20April%2011%201874.jpg

http://www3.telus.net/public/benowak/SciAmer%20Aug%2026%201868.jpg

brad

That is a very cool article. I also enjoyed the article that followed it about the electic "horseless vehicle" contest. If only they had continued to develop battery power then, we might not be in the mess we are today with petroleum use.

-Um, we did. Pretty much constantly, more or less, until today. Electric cars have been tested, tried and even marketed tens of dozens of times since then.

The problem, as always, remains the battery. Electrics failed back in those days for the same reason they do now; the batteries are expensive, heavy, short-lived (compared to a liquid-fueled engine) and slow to recharge.

Even today, after close to a century of research and development, batteries still can't compete with gas engines, and it's actually fairly unlikely they ever will.

It's not a matter of the designers abandoning the idea for a century, it's a matter of simple physics; a gallon of gasoline is one of the densest energy storage mediums we know, with largely only certain explosives and/or exotic rocket fuels beating it in BTUs per pound. Even today's rare-metals batteries can't touch it.

As soon as we have a battery that can hold enough juice to push a car at 60mph for three hours, recharge in less than ten minutes, and doesn't cost more than half the price of the whole car to replace- oh, and lasts more than three years- then you'll start seeing more people buy electrics.

Doc.

Tesla Motors

... Who use Lithium-Ion batteries that, by their very chemical nature, lose roughly 30% of their capacity per year, whether or not you use them.

Those batteries also cost roughly $50,000-$60,000 to replace, or half the cost of the car.

So it's a $100K Roadster that'll get 150 miles on a charge today, or maybe fifty miles on a charge in three years, and cost as much as two Priuses to refresh the batteries.

Yeah, I can see those just flyin' off the shelves.

Doc.

I you missed the latest blacksmithing article in Sci Amer. It can be found here (2 pages)

Latest?

Scans are a little large ...

Yes they are but they're cool. :cool:

... Who use Lithium-Ion batteries that, by their very chemical nature, lose roughly 30% of their capacity per year, whether or not you use them.

Those batteries also cost roughly $50,000-$60,000 to replace, or half the cost of the car.

So it's a $100K Roadster that'll get 150 miles on a charge today, or maybe fifty miles on a charge in three years, and cost as much as two Priuses to refresh the batteries.

Yeah, I can see those just flyin' off the shelves.

Doc.

Doc can you cite your statements?
What I found with a quick check is according to Wikipedia the batteries lose 20% not 30% and it depends on the temperature, which Tesla uses a cooling system for the batteries.
The cost of the batteries is 20-30K (couldn't find anything factual just heresay)
And the car gets (according to Tesla and using a prototype) 170-267 Miles with the EPA tests they did showing 230 City and 211 Highway.

It looks to me we will transition more and more to hybrids then maybe full electric or maybe some other alternative fuel. One thing is for certain our current way we use gas is not the answer and thier will always be people who say "it'll never work".

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