Jay Leno shows off his 1909 Baker Electric car in this video. It’s range was comparable to the electric cars of today.
Did you know that 90% of cars were electric in 1900? Just imagine how different the world would be if this technology had been developed and improved upon over the past 110 years.
As I mentioned before, I’ve been looking for a way to build (or buy) a gravity powered generator based on the same principles that drive a grandfather’s clock.
Well, somebody’s already done it. It doesn’t produce much power but it works on the same principle as a grandfather’s clock. A weight drives some gears and chains which turn a homemade alternator instead of a clock. The power it produces is stored in a battery and then used to light an LED.
This can also be called a weight-driven generator or human-powered generator because ultimately the weight must by lifted by human force to create the potential energy that will be released to generate the electricity.
The most amazing thing is that he built it out of Lego building blocks and accessories like gears and chains. I didn’t know that Lego made gears and chains which tells you how long it’s been since I played with Lego.
He describes how it was built here. There is also a video of it on YouTube.
It’s just billiant!
If it seems primative think about where Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone call has taken us or the first computer made by Hewlett and Packard in a garage.
For those of you like me who are interested in using natural, ambient forces to generate energy, I call your attention to The Museum of Unworkable Devices.
It’s a fun and instructive site that discusses the long history of inventions that attempt to defy the laws of physics. It’s worth a look just for the illustrations.
For those actively working on such devices, it could also save you a lot of time.
The seekers after perpetual motion are trying to get something from nothing.
—Sir Isaac Newton