This month, General Motors will start the delivery of its 2011 model of the Chevrolet Volt. The Volt is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle with several novel features including a 16 kW·h (10.4 kW·h usable) lithium-ion battery battery pack which can be charged by plugging the car into a 120-240VAC residential electrical outlet. It also has a small 4-cylinder internal combustion engine to power a 55 kW (74 hp) generator to extend the Volt's range when the battery is depleted.
The credit for building the first successful, four-wheeled electric vehicle in the US goes to the Scottish-born chemist, William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa. He built his car in 1887 which had its first public appearance a year later in Des Moines' "Seni-Om-Sed" parade. By 1893 his electric car was creating sensation at the Chicago World's Fair. At the heart of Morrison's electric car was an improved battery. Morrison was issued US Patent 464,676 entitled "Electrode for Secondary Batteries" exactly 119 years ago today.
In his patent, Morrison claimed that the storage batteries of his day were defective because the materials used in their plates are "breaking away" and are deposited on the "insulating strips or the bottom of the cell, forming a conductor between the anodes thus short-circuiting" the battery. Morrison addressed this problem by covering the battery plates with "glass-wool," (an early type of fiberglass,) since this particular material, while "practicably indestructible, not being subject to the action of the acid" is of "such porosity as to freely permit the circulation of the gases and the solution."
To power his 6-passenger car, Morrison used 24 batteries (that had a combined output of 112 amperes at 58 volts,) which were mounted under the car seat. It required 10 hours to recharge the batteries to power the car's 4 hp motor. Morrison sold his 1891 battery patent to the American Battery Company for $21,000.00. He also moved to Chicago where the company was located and continued making improvements to his battery for which he obtained scores of additional patents.
As for his electric car, however, Morrison did not bother to obtain a patent. It is difficult to say whether he sensed early on the uphill competition it faces vis-a-vis cars powered by internal-combustion engines. In the meantime, the technology for gasoline-powered automobiles began to overtake battery-powered electric cars. By 1908, in Detroit, Michigan, Henry Ford started the mass production of his Model T automobiles.
It almost took a century to revive people's interest in the electric car. Thanks to the unrelenting awareness-raising campaigns that environmentally-conscious people mounted, present-day electric hybrid cars are gaining popularity once again. The price for this technology is still prohibitive. It will take the innovating drive of a William Morrison to make these cars affordable.
Morrison, William: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/99999999/FAMOUSIOWANS/41217016/Morrison-William
The Morrison Electric Automobile & The William Morrison Co.: http://www.american-automobiles.com/Electric-Cars/Morrison-Electric.html
Early Electric Car Timeline: http://www.earlyelectric.com/timeline.html
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