James Watt

[Rick]

No cheating.Can anyone tell me who James Watt was and how he affects the auto world?

 

[GizmoJoe]

He was the steam engine dude.. Made improvements.. right?
And the Watts linkage...or so I assume
And don't tell Jay Leno the steam engine wasn't great for hot rods.

 

[Track-T]

He also came up with What is know as "horsepower" he determination that a "horsepower" was 550 foot-pounds per second. The unit of power in the metric system is called the watt; one horsepower equals 746 watts.

 

[GizmoJoe]

Ok.. now that the cat is out of the bag, so to speak...
While I agree he was a smart man, I read that he was like most inventors in that he used/bought or whatever patents and ideas from others (one was his employee) along with his own neat creations.
Since I opened that can... here are some other car-related trivia.
For instance.. did you know that Henry Woodward* invented an electric light bulb in 1874 and sold the patent to Thomas Edison?
Thomas L. Wilson* invented the production process to produce Acetylene in 1892.
Thomas Ahearn* invented the first electric car heater in 1890
Odometer Invented by Samuel McKeen* in 1854

* by the way.. all were Canadian.

 

[butch27]

He any relation to Ernie Watt? That guy owes me some money.

 

[Old Rotor Flap]

He any relation to Ernie Watt? That guy owes me some money.

That's funny .............. the best laugh I've had in a week. Thanks Butch27.

 

[ellis8500]

Actually, a Watt is not a metric measurement. A watt is one volt-amp; a measurement of electric power. 746 watts is one horsepower, the conversion between electric power and mechanical power. A joule, metric, is also one watt. So maybe a watt is metric. Hmmmmm. Wonder if they designed Ohms law to be metric? Guess someone will research that; I'm too lazy today to do that.

 

[deckofficer]

Well Mr. Bill, you beat me to the punch on that one. Me, an avid hot rodder of vehicles with internal combustion engines and electric motor, that 746 watts per hp is fried on my brain. In the markerplace a company named Manzanita Micro makes a DC motor speed controller called the "Zilla" rated at 2000 amps @ 360 volts. Crunch those numbers and you will see that you are dealing with an electric car that can produce full rated torque at 0 rpm's and have horsepower of around 965 peak electric hp. I believe retail price on that controller is $4675.00. A controller does the gas job of our carbs, allowing speed control. That price does not include a motor or batteries. My electric vehicle hobby pulls about 10 X the greenbacks of the normal hot rod hobby. I think I'm bucket t'ing it here to stay.


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