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- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!torn!thunder!flash!dnwangus
- From: dnwangus@flash.LakeheadU.Ca (Dave Angus)
- Newsgroups: sci.electronics
- Subject: Re: Flywheel batteries as EV power source
- Message-ID: <640@thunder.LakeheadU.Ca>
- Date: 15 Dec 1992 22:45:32 GMT
- References: <Bz6nuM.LCo@acsu.buffalo.edu> <1992Dec13.114534.961@cmkrnl.com>
- Sender: news@thunder.LakeheadU.Ca
- Organization: Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ont., Canada
- Lines: 37
-
- In article <1992Dec13.114534.961@cmkrnl.com> jeh@cmkrnl.com writes:
- >In article <Bz6nuM.LCo@acsu.buffalo.edu>, v064mb9k@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu
- >(NEIL GANDLER) writes:
- >> I just have finished reading the latest Popular Science issue. Jan 93.
- >> On p. 27 they discuss flywheel power as a possible energy source for
- >> future Ev's. Claimed advantges are a cruising rnage of over 600 miles
- >
- >It isn't exactly "new" -- PS had a cover story on flywheel-based EVs something
- >like 20 or 30 years ago. At that time there was a small fleet of
- >flywheel-driven streetcars in, I believe, Denmark. These did not use a
- >high-tech flywheel and could run for only ten minutes or so away from the power
- >source -- but that was sufficient to allow them to leave the overhead power
- >lines for a block or two.
-
- Just coincidentally I was reading through the November 1958 issue
- of Popular Science. On page 139 is a photo of a little electric
- locomotive with this caption:
-
- Flywheel-driven engine.
-
- This gyro-electric locomotive needs no
- overhead trolley. It is driven by a fly-
- wheel that turns a generator to supply
- current, as in the drawing at left.
- At stops five miles apart, overhead
- pickup arms connect with conductors to
- renew the charge. The generator then acts
- as a motor to reaccelerate the flywheel.
- The locomotive is built by Oerlikon of
- Zurich for Swiss mines and steelworks.
-
- The diagram shows the flywheel mounted with its shaft vertical, on
- a spring suspension.
-
-
- --
- Dave Angus "Kundalini wants his hand back"
-