To be read after Lesson 7

Electric Car

The electric car is not a new idea. It had success with American women in the early 1900s. Women liked electric cars because they were quiet and, what was more important, they did not pollute the

air. Electric cars were also easier to start than gasoline-powered ones. But the latter was faster, and in the 1920s they became much more popular.

The electric car was not used until the 1970s, when there were serious problems with the availability of oil. The General Motors Co. had plans to develop an electric car by 1980. However, soon oil became available again, and this car was never produced.

Today there is a new interest in the electric car. The Toyota Co. recently decided to spend $800 million a year on the development of new car technology. Many engineers believe that the electric car will lead to other forms of technology being used for transportation.

Car companies are working at developing a supercar. A super-efficient car will have an electric motor. Four possible power sources are being investigated. The simple one is batteries. Another possibility is fuel cells, which combine oxygen from air with hydro­gen to make electricity. Yet another approach would be a flywheel (маховик), an electric generator consisting of free-spinning wheels with magnets in the rims that can produce a current. A fourth pos­sible power source for the super-car would be a small turbine en­gine, running on a clean fuel like natural gas. It would run at a constant speed, generating electricity for driving vehicles or for feeding a bank of batteries, storing energy for later use.

Engines

Do you know what the first engine was like? It was called the «water wheel». This was an ordinary wheel with blades fixed to it, and the current of a river turned it. These first engines were used for irrigating fields.

Then a wind-powered engine was invented. This was a wheel, but a very small one. Long wide wooden blades were attached to it. The new engine was driven by the wind. Some of these ones can still be seen in the country.

Both of these, the water- and wind-operated engines are very economical. They do not need fuel in order to function. But they are dependent on the weather.

Many years passed and people invented a new engine, one op­erated by steam. In a steam engine, there is a furnace and a boiler. The furnace is filled with wood or coal and then lit. The fire heats the water in the boiler and when it boils, it turns into steam which does some useful work.

The more coal is put in the furnace, the stronger the fire is burning. The more steam there is, the faster a train or a boat is moving.

The steam engine drove all sorts of machines, for example, steam ships and steam locomotives. Indeed, the very first aeroplane built by A.F. Mozhaisky also had a steam engine. However, the steam engine had its disadvantages. It was too large and heavy, and needed too much fuel.

The imperfections of the steam engine led to the design of a new type. It was called the internal combustion engine, because its fuel ignites and burns inside the engine itself and not in a furnace. It is smaller and lighter than a steam engine because it does not have a boiler. It is also more powerful, as it uses better-quality fuel: petrol or kerosene.

The internal combustion engine is now used in cars, diesel lo­comotives and motor ships. But to enable aeroplanes to fly faster than the speed of sound another, more powerful engine was needed. Eventually, one was invented and it was given the name «jet en­gine». The gases in it reach the temperature of over a thousand de­grees. It is made of a very resistant metal so that it will not melt.