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On Thu, 10/8/15, Anthony Jackson <xxxxxx@iii.com> wrote:

 Subject: RE: [TML] Understanding batteries and solar and motors.
 To: "xxxxxx@simplelists.com" <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
 Date: Thursday, October 8, 2015, 2:57 PM

 From: Bruce Johnson

 > Also you get greater
 efficiency and performance if you move the motors to the
 drive wheels

 Well,
 that's pretty much what I meant by calling them the
 transmission. In a current-day IC engine, you get energy
 from the engine to the wheels via a system of gears; in an
 electric engine, you get energy from the engine to the
 wheels via electrical wires and then motors at the
 wheels.

 It is possible to
 have an electrical transmission for an IC engine -- instead
 of running the crankshaft into a transmission box, run it
 into an electrical generator, distribute it to the wheels
 over wires, and use it to run electric motors at the wheels.
 While only experimental in automobiles, the diesel-electric
 locomotive has been the dominant technology in trains for
 decades now.
    
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Prior to 1920 the US Navy decided that turbo-electric was the way to go w/ their BB's.
DC motors were coupled directly to the drive shaft.
However, for some reason, when the ships were overhauled in the '30's, geared turbines replaced the original equip & the USN stuck with that configuration.
Also, in the '60's, the USN experimented w/ electric motors for their SSN's.
The idea was that they would be quieter.
One was actually built but, since that sub was slower the idea was dropped.

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