'Bleep Bleep' May Herald A Return to the Electric Car
By: J.D.S. Alan
October 22, 1957
Liverpool Echo
SPUTNIK, the man-made moon, howled like a demented banshee when launched into a long-swift encirclement of the earth.
Then it settled into a steady broadcast of that "bleep-bleep" now dinned into the consciousness of hundreds of millions of people.
A few days later some observers reported that the signals had become weaker.
"Ah, yes!" said the critics. "The batteries are running down. Soon there will be silence."
But a week, then a fortnight, passed, and found Sputnik bleeping merrily as ever. The rate of signaling speeded up.
Further reports of weakening were not sustained, and may have been due to weather, or to planned changes inside the sphere.
Sputnik carried on at speeds in the region of 18,000 miles an hour, or 23 times the speed of sound at sea level, on a polar orbit, day after day.
CRITICS WERE CONFOUNDED
Meantime, experts, who design electric units to power the controls of Britain's secret rockets, and to signal data back to earth, sat down to solve the mystery of the continued high performances of the Russian batteries.
Sputnik is an alloy sphere only 22.84 inches in diameter. Its batteries can hardly measure more than 20 inches across. Yet they keep working.
Research workers of several, quite separate British teams have reached a unanimous conclusion that Sputnik's electricity is stored in silver zinc cells.
These are much more costly, but size for size, have a longer and great output, than orthodox lead-acid batteries fitted to cars.
I HAVE BEEN GIVEN ONLY ONE ALTERNATIVE– THAT THE RUSSIANS HAVE SOME ELECTRICAL STORAGE MATERIAL QUITE UNKNOWN TO THE WEST, AND THIS IS REGARDED AS A MOST REMOTE POSSIBILITY.
Silver zinc batteries are not new. They have been used for years to provide auxiliary power in special aircraft jobs, in which cost did not matter, as against space and weight saved, greater capacity and high discharge rates.
More recently they have been used for portable film cameras and portable broadcasting recorders.
At the moment I am told that a silver zinc battery costs between four and ten times as much as the old type.
Unknown to most people, surprising developments have been made in this country with this form of power-storage, which may one day revolutionize motoring and certain forms of flying.
A large model aeroplane, powered by a small silver zinc battery, has been flying here.
It was built by Colonel H. J. Taplin, engineer, of Birchington, Kent, pioneer airman with A. V. Roe in 1908, and pilot of World War I.
Colonel Taplin has long been renowned for his petrol and diesel-engined flying models. Since July, he has been flying a monoplane with a 7ft. 6in. wing-span, on a silver zinc battery only 6in. long by 2in. wide and 3in. deep.
The plane weighs in all 8lbs., the battery only a trifle over 2lb. It is composed of 25 tiny silver zinc cells, is rated at 30 volts and, produces one-third of a horse-power for 10 minutes.
The monoplane, Radio Queen, converted from a five year-old petrol model, flies at 28 miles an hour. The motor, bought from ex-R.A.F. stock, drives a propeller 11in. in diameter at 8,000 revs. a minute.
LITTLE PROGRESS IN YEARS
Said Colonel Taplin: "Scientists right back from the great inventor Hiram Haxim have declared that practical flight by a heavier-than-air machine on stored electricity is impossible.
"To the best of my belief am the only man in the world to have achieved it.
"I am rebuilding the model and expect a weight saving of 20 per cent. chiefly by simplifying the radio controls.
"I have calculated that an Auster light aeroplane could be redesigned to run on silver zinc batteries for an hour, with only one occupant. It would be silent.
"I have used a larger silver zinc battery on a model high-speed boat. The battery cost me £49 and that for the aeroplane £32.
"This would be a lot of money to spend on models for the fun of the thing, but I built them for serious research."
The old lead-acid battery has not made great basic strides in recent years, though there have been many refinements. To-day silver zinc opens a new vista.
Several British and American firms are exploring the possibilities of using silver zinc batteries for driving cars. At the moment electric traction is used mainly for local milk deliveries, transport inside factories and for invalid carriages.
CAR FOR YOUR SHOPPING
Mr. R. P. Mason, commercial manager of an electronics firm, told me: "I visualize that in two or three years we shall see the beginning of a big movement to provide the home with a second car, a smaller model driven by silver zinc batteries, for shopping and other local work.
"General motoring by this means will not come for many years– until there are plenty of power stations for recharging.
"It will come, however, with cars probably having a radius of about 100 miles.
"It would be possible to recharge the batteries in 20 minutes or so. Against this delay would be the advantages of silent running, cleanliness, and rapid acceleration.
"Maintenance would be reduced, because there are not so many moving parts as ion an internal combustion engine."
A come-back by the electric car would indeed by dramatic. In 1899, the great Jenatzy, in a cigar-shaped electric car, achieved 65.82 miles an hour. The record stood until 1902 when it was raised to 75 miles an hour by Serpellet in a steam car.
The record might well have stayed with electric cars in 1902, but for disaster striking the world's first really streamlined racing car.
This was the Baker Torpedo, an electric car build by an Ohio engineer, at a cost of $20,000.
It reached 78 miles an hour on its first (unofficial) run and was doing 100 miles an hour in the measured mile when a wheel splintered on a rock, and the car dashed into the crowd, killing two and injuring six.
In 1904, a similar version, the baker Torpedo Kid, was unofficially timed at 104 m.p.h.
But the motoring world was by then not so enamored as to pursue the development of battery cars.