-
Does anyone recognise these photo links? They don't look like photobucket. Also any way to recover them?
http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs234.snc3/22144_300198307663_504552663_4626382_7590128_n.jpg
http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs294.ash1/22144_300198312663_504552663_4626383_8064944_n.jpg
http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs234.snc3/22144_300198332663_504552663_4626385_1474557_n.jpg -
It occurred to me yesterday that since I can remember, milk floats were always electric so I figured they must have been made at least 25 years ago. I've just looked it up and they began to become mainstream in the 40s*!
I understand they would have had low speed and small ranges but can anyone explain to me why it has taken 60 or more years for us to implement this into mainstream cars when seemingly we could have had electric vehicles in urban environments decades ago?*electric vehicles apparently have been produced for commercial uses since the 1900s
-
From around 1900 till the 20s our city's trams were all electric.
With coal stoves inside to warm the passengers in winter. -
*electric vehicles apparently have been produced for commercial uses since the 1900s
In fact, electric vehicles are the OG. There's a whole thing on that topic ranging from actual history to conspiracy theories, but yeah. This is not a bad read. The whole thing is fascinating.
Here is an early e-bike - 10 to 25 miles, max speed 9mph, by English inventors William Ayrton and John Perry. Yes, it has electric lights built-in:
1882! The Cutty Sark was in active duty and relatively young at that point.
-
Having the privilege to be brought up in the glory that is Ruislip,
electric milk floats were the norm, as we were just down the road from the head office of Express Dairies, in South Ruislip.
Imagine my bewilderment, on going to secondary school, in furthest Ickenham, to find a local farm offered daily milk deliveries from a diesel Transit? -
why it has taken 60 or more years for us to implement this into mainstream cars
Because mainstream cars need range - or, at least, their users think they do - and historically battery / electric systems couldn't deliver this as efficiently as ICE motors could for various boring historical reasons, whilst populations generally weren't aware of, or didn't care about, air quality.
-
why it has taken 60 or more years for us to implement this into mainstream cars
Energy density. Making slow electric vehicles with a very limited range is easy. Selling slow electric vehicles with a very limited range to potential customers, who could buy a much faster ICE car with effectively unlimited range instead, is hard.
-
People are assholes?
Got it, thanks!
-
Want
-
I won't go that far. A milk float is pretty useless if you try to use it as a personal transport vehicle, as were most electric vehicles until recently. Now the technology exists to make a half decent electric car, people are buying them. But until recent developments in batteries, motors, and electric drive controllers electric cars were basically shit, expensive and useless. I wouldn't consider anyone to be an asshole for not paying well over the odds for something which is fundamentally incapable of fulfilling its intended purpose.
-
Most people thought they were gonna die from Nuclear Armageddon so I can kinda forgive them.
Lazy....assholes... not so much - why would you make what appears to be a crap choice, on the face of it? If the battery tech wasn't there to provide something like parity with ICE, it just wasn't there. Nobody would even sell you an electric car for most of post war time, even if you wanted one.
Radio Controlled Cars in the 80s/90s were wicked tho
-
Supply and demand. Batteries weren't available because they weren't developed because people didn't want them.
I was just joking although I think most people are assholes regardless of transport methods.
It was just a passing thought in the first place which sparked my curiosity. I still think however that if we had vehicles with a 35 mile electric range in the 40s and the same development went into it as has done with ICEs then we could all have had personal EVs with 100 mile ranges for a could £k by now
shame -
Supply and demand. Batteries weren't available because they weren't developed because people didn't want them.
You are mixing up two concepts here. S&D sets price, it doesn't decide possibilities.
Batteries were not developed to the extent that perhaps you would like in the R&D community because the ICE was such a strong proposition and nobody wants to work on stuff they know will have no future at that point in time. Only when several trends converge - the need for super batteries to power the super computer in your pocket, increased awareness of the local environmental impact of ICE, the increasing expense in the production of oil - does the battery vehicle become viable.
And you can't blame consumers for not understanding the art of the possible - I can demand a teleportation system as hard as I want right not but I'm not going to get one, in the same way someone in the 60s/70s/80s could demand a practical battery car with a 100 mile range and be similarly disappointed.
-
I still think however that if we had vehicles with a 35 mile electric range in the 40s and the same development went into it as has done with ICEs then we could all have had personal EVs with 100 mile ranges for a could £k by now
I agree. But as always, it's worth remembering that while electric cars are undoubtedly more environmentally friendly at the point of use, and reduce carbon emissions overall, they are not really as much of a holy grail as they're being sold as nowadays. The winning strategy is still to go for micro mobility and public transport.
hugo7
Trunkie
Brommers
Tijmen
alsoPhilDAS
withered_preacher
SwissChap
mespilus
Howard
mashton
Lolo-
Post a reply
About
Any question answered...
Posted by
@carson
Just had a worktop delivered from worktop express to use as a desk, had bevelled edges and a corner radius done, so had it pre oiled, really happy with it.