Re: [AMC-List] Another Re; E Stick, now Drivers

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 21 Dec 2006, Sandwich Maker wrote:

> the problem is that you have to make them extremely precisely and from
> very hard materials to be efficient [because what you have is very
> much like a ball bearing] so that you can run very high contact
> pressures because slippage is death.  monsanto even developed a
> special lubricant that turns solid under extreme pressure [santotrac
> iirc] but apparently the technology wasn't there yet or we'd all be
> driving them.

Yeh, that variable-ratio stuff so far works only on low
torque apps.  Ball-and-disc integrators were used in mechanical
computers around WWII, where the forces were tiny, and still
slippage required all sorts of compensations.

The best "converter" so far is powersource --> generator -->
control circuitry --> motor. That's what locomotives do. It's
not cheap.

I think this really where "hybrid" technology will gain; it's a
really efficient way to transform energy. Its just complicated.
But complicated technology is what benefits from Fordism, look
how much complicated crap is in a desktop computer and all in all
they work really cheap for really long times for little money;
you just can't fix them.

I like really new laptops (might as well pot them in epoxy)
and really old cars (they come with technical service manuals!).

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