Auto Engines of Tomorrow, subtitled Power alternatives for cars to come, by H.E. Dark, is a book that does not live up to its title. It makes no mention, for example, of the SAAB wobble-plate steam car (AtE Jan.75); flywheel and compressed air storage are given only passing mention; the word methanol does not occur in the book at all; and there is no serious comparative evaluation of future alternatives for powering the automobile.
And yet the book is well written and enjoyable, provided only you imagine it is called Auto Engines of Today and Yesterday. It requires little technical knowledge on the part of the reader, who is introduced to many unconventional designs. Particularly good are the historical tid-bits. For example: British stage coach owners and railroad investors, with what would today be called genuine environmental concern, rammed the Red Flag Act through Parliament in 1865. It limited the speed of road-using, self-propelled vehicles (steamcars at the time) to 3 miles per hour and required them to be preceded by a man carrying a red flag. By the time this Naderesque law was repealed in 1896, both gasoline driven and electric cars had gained a foothold.
In 1865, England was still the main machine shop of the world, and the temptation is large to play the idle game of "What if...?".
180pp., hardbound, $8.95, from Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN 47401.
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Vol. 3, No. 2
Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive Volume: Volume 3 Issue/No.: Vol. 3, No. 2 Date: October 01, 1975 10:31 AM Title: Oil and Paper
Copyright © 2004 - Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
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