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There's nothing new under the sun.


hilldweller

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I've been having a chortle at a couple of advertisments on the television at the moment.

One of them is for the "New Electric Mini". This puts me in mind of an old "Electric Mini" that I rode about  in back in about 1967.

This was a prototype made by AEI (Associated Electrical Industries) and was taken on a tour around AEI factories in the UK including the one I worked at. It comprises of a BMC Mini Van which had the petrol engine replaced by a AEI V66 milk float motor. The flat platform in the back of the van was loaded with large lead-acid batteries supplying 72 volts. 

The motor speed controller was a very low tech arrangement called a "Chopper Controller" which switched the power supply on and off  rapidly. It used Thyristors which were the only high power semiconductors available at the time. This controller made a very loud high pitched whine in operation. I believe that the EU want electric vehicles to be fitted with artificial engine noise devices for safety reasons. This prototype could have been heard from a mile away.

The other advert that causes me amusement is for an insurance company that specialised in agricultural cover and has now branched out into household cover.

It makes a big thing about new for old cover and shows a chap bringing in a replacement telly, The box he carries it in is marked 42 inch OLED television.  Unfortunately the box is only about 2 feet long. It must be an inflate-able model like some of these modern mattresses that come in a tiny box until you pull it out.

Daft I know but I do think they ought to have thought that one out better.

It doesn't take much to amuse me these days.

hilldweller

Postscript.

Further to the above I've been Googling and found a reference to the car. My memory isn't as good as I thought and the car was a BMC Mini Traveller. (A minivan with windows).

If you google AEI V66 vehicle motor there's a link to it. The motor was in fact a V67 and the top speed 41 mph. It was produced by BMC on some sort of research grant I think. There's even a photo of it.

hilldweller.

s

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41 mph.  hilldweller  ,  a bit slow but probably a bit safer than this one.  Personally I doubt I will ever take to one, I can't help associating them with the milk floats I drove over 50 years ago,

As for the TV I doubt a modern advertising executive knows what an inch is,

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La Jamais Contente

“The car in which you travel seems to leave the ground and hurl itself forward like a projectile ricocheting along the ground. As for the driver, the muscles of his body and neck become rigid in resisting the pressure of the air; his gaze is steadfastly fixed about 200 yards ahead; his senses are on the alert.”

That’s what inventor, racer, and pilot of La Jamais Contente (The Never Satisfied) said of the experience driving his creation to speeds in excess of 100 km/h (62 mph)—the first man-made machine to do so.

And it is electric

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A few more here ------ https://petrolicious.com/articles/unplug-and-hang-on-five-interesting-vintage-electric-cars

la_jamais_contente.jpg

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13 hours ago, boginspro said:

41 mph.  hilldweller  ,  a bit slow but probably a bit safer than this one.  Personally I doubt I will ever take to one, I can't help associating them with the milk floats I drove over 50 years ago,

As for the TV I doubt a modern advertising executive knows what an inch is,

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I did recently think about moving to a small all electric vehicle when my present vehicle reached 3 years old. I normally buy new and trade them in at 3 years old but my present milage due to my health is so low that my Czech Tank, a 4 wheel drive, auto 2 litre TDI Yeti, will see me out,the way things are going.

I did a bit of research into E vehicles and didn't like what I found. The thoughts of sitting atop a raft of potentially unstable Lithium Ion batteries didn't fill me with confidence. I saw on a TV programme that crashed E vehicles can only be recovered by specialist contractors due to the electric shock risk from the 650 / 800 volts DC conductors that can be exposed. The lightweight Lithium Ion batteries fitted to the new Boing Dreamliners had a tendency to burn holes in the fusilage from what I remember. I understand that the larger vehicles require water cooling of the battery banks.

The other thing to take into account is the huge amount of materials that will have to be mined to make the batteries and all the heavy wiring. Plus the costs of providing charging points and the MASSIVE improvements to the power distribution systems required.

I can't help but think that the decisions to go all electric have been taken without considering the options of making existing internal combustion engines much cleaner. My Yeti is already EU6 certified and uses the urea additive to reduce pollution.

It'll see me out but i hope not too soon 😃

 

L

 

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Going back to the topic that "There is nothing new under the sun", I have recently purchased a Hi-Fi amplifier with thermionic valves in it.

I've always been interested in Hi-Fi and many years ago posessed equipment made by the likes of Leak, Quad and Kef. This was in the days when valves reigned supreme and transistors were only fit for cheap plastic portable radios.

Eventually I succomed to the idea that solid state was the way forward and sold all my equipment.

If I had kept it It would be worth a small fortune nowadays.

The valve amplifier is an updated version of the Leak 20-20 that I once owned and the sounds it produces are a relevation. It knocks the audiophile quality Class D amp it replaced into a cocked hat.

It uses the EL84 output valves first produced by Mullard in 1953/4 and apparently used in the firing mechanism of the early UK atomic weapons. The USSR produced millions of them for military use. Valves are no longer produced in the UK and nowadays are made in China, Russia and Slovakia.

My amp uses mainly Russian Valves and a couple of Chinese ones.

Since I bought it I've been through my entire music collection, marvelling at how much better they sound. The sound stage is staggering and I can hear instruments I didn't know were there.

We will be going back to pony and traps next !  😀😀

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