How You Charged Your Electric Car 100 Years Ago

[supercub]

What battery chemistry was used in these cars?

[wws944]

On 9/12/2021 at 8:14 AM, ply33 said:

So do the “steps” switch in/out various high power resistors? Do they connect the batteries in various series/parallel combinations? Or do they something else like switch in/out successive field coils in the motor?

 

The controllers are similar to, but much smaller than, the electric trolley controllers of the day.  There is a bank of resistors which are switched in various series and parallel combinations, and also connecting the stator coil(s) and rotor in series or parallel.  So the answer to your question is "all of the above".

 

Googling around, I found this web page which seems pretty good: Wells Auto Museum (twinkletoesengineering.info)

 

One interesting feature that some early electrics had was a primitive form of regenerative braking.  The above web page claims that some electrics didn't even have mechanical brakes.

[wws944]

6 hours ago, supercub said:

What battery chemistry was used in these cars?

 

Most were lead-acid - similar to most of todays 12V automotive batteries.  Eventually Thomas Edison famously introduced his nickel-iron batteries that worked better, but were more expensive than Pb batteries.  Too little, too late to stem the tide to gas cars though.

 

In the "missed it by _that much_" department:  In the 1910 kids book "Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout", Tom mixed some lithium into his batteries to make his electric car run better.  If only Edison had taken a cue from Tom Swift, and tried lithium instead of nickel, he might have hit upon todays LiFePO battery chemistry.  LiFePO ("iron phosphate") batteries are now used for many things, including lower end EVs. 

Edited September 14, 2021 by wws944 (see edit history)