Antenna, AM/FM ON THE CAR

MUCH OF YOUR CAR’S TECHNOLOGY is hidden beneath the metal and plastic body or hood. But some equipment cannot be hidden or protected inside the car. In some cases designers blend the machines into the car’s body so you don’t notice them. Others are themselves design elements and some pop out from hidden recesses when needed.

Antenna, AM/FM

BEHAVIOR

It wiggles in the wind as you drive at highway speeds, showing patterns of standing waves. It also receives the radio signals that bring you news, sports, music, and way too many commercials. As if that weren’t enough, it also provides a perch for

antenna balls.

HABITAT

On most cars it is the stiff wire that rises vertically from just in front of the windshield on the passenger’s side or on the rear fender on the driver’s side.

HOW IT WORKS

Antennas are tuned to receive electromagnetic radiation within certain frequency bands. Note their similarity to tiny antenna on old cell phones. (Newer cell phones,

operating at even higher frequencies, have smaller antenna that fit inside the hand unit.) AM and FM radio stations broadcast at low frequencies and large antennas are needed to receive those signals at these frequencies.

To transmit an AM signal the ideal antenna is huge. Hence, AM radio stations have very tall towers and long antenna. FM stations, which operate at higher requencies, need shorter transmit antennas. But both types of stations have transmit antennas many times larger than the antenna on your car. Driving around with a 100-foot-tall antenna just won’t work, so the transmitted signals are strong enough that the less

than optimum height antenna on your car still receives radio signals.

INTERESTING FACTS

Radio antennas had been mounted in the cloth roofs of cars until the advent of steel roofs for cars in 1934. The new roofs reflected and blocked radio waves, so engineers experimented with placing antenna elsewhere, eventually settling on the favored location behind the hood.

© 2009 by Ed Sobey

All rights reserved

Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated

814 North Franklin Street

Chicago, Illinois 60610

ISBN: 978-1-55652-812-5

Printed in the United States of America

5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sobey, Edwin J. C., 1948–

A field guide to automotive technology / Ed Sobey.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-55652-812-5

1. Automobiles—Popular works. 2. Mechanics—Popular works. I. Title.

TL146.5.S63 2008

629.2—dc22

2008046620

HOW CARS WORK

Explosions! Thousands of explosions every minute of operation power internal combustion engines. Squirt one part of fuel and 15 parts of air into a closed cylinder, add an electric spark, and there will be an explosion.

Explosions are rapid chemical reactions that release tremendous amounts of energy, mostly as heat. The gases created in the explosion expand rapidly, increasing the pressure inside the cylinder and driving a moveable piston down the cylinder.

A crankshaft converts the up and down motion of several pistons into rotary motion that powers the wheels. But to get to the wheels, the kinetic energy must transfer through a transmission that trades engine speed for torque, or turning power, through a series of gears. Moving torque from the transmission to the wheels requires complex mechanical systems that have great variety in design.

Is this all? Not at all. There is much more to how a car works. But this is a start. Now go look at your car—ask yourself what each part does, and if you don’t know the answer look it up in the following pages.

© 2009 by Ed Sobey

All rights reserved

Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated

814 North Franklin Street

Chicago, Illinois 60610

ISBN: 978-1-55652-812-5

Printed in the United States of America

5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sobey, Edwin J. C., 1948–

A field guide to automotive technology / Ed Sobey.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-55652-812-5

1. Automobiles—Popular works. 2. Mechanics—Popular works. I. Title.

TL146.5.S63 2008

629.2—dc22

2008046620

electric engines

Today, as electric engines are resurging amid the green revolution and fuel-cost consciousness, it’s hard to imagine how electric cars lost market share to gasoline. But internal combustion proponents worked

steadily to reduce their engines’ drawbacks.

Gasoline engines operate in a relatively narrow range of rotational speeds. While this is not a problem for a lawn mower that chomps away at a steady rate, it is a big problem in powering a car from zero to 60 miles per hour. The invention of the transmission (and much later the automatic transmission) made gasoline and diesel engines competitive.

Starting a gasoline engine was a difficult and dangerous job until Charles Kettering’s invention of the automatic starter removed that

liability. Kettering also invented the electric ignition system, leaded  gasoline (now outlawed due to concerns of lead in the environment), four-wheel brakes, and safety glass.

While gasoline-powered cars became easier to operate, steam remained complex. Although a well-run steam car could keep up with both electric and gasoline cars, steam became increasingly more impractical by comparison.

Initially, engine-powered vehicles were toys for the wealthy. Electric and steam-powered cars never broke out of that mold. Electrics were especially expensive to purchase, although they were cheaper to operate

than gasoline—the same as today. The companies that made steam and electric cars focused on serving the limited customer base of the rich. Utility took a backseat to class appeal.

When Henry Ford’s grand experiment with mass production took shape, the cost of gasoline cars plummeted. He succeeded in his goal to make cars affordable for the working class. Now people could use cars as practical transportation and not just for weekend picnics. By 1917 the race for dominance had been won by gasoline proponents. Although there were some 50,000 electric-powered cars in the United States that year, there were 70 times more gasoline-powered cars.

Ford succeeded because his engineers were successful in solving the problem of production. The 1908 Model T was so successful that Ford had trouble keeping up with demand in his traditional assembly

plants. The Model T ran well on the unpaved roads of America and it ran with little need for expert maintenance—which is good, because little was available. Since Ford was selling every car they could manufacture, they focused on increasing production. It took Ford six years to develop the moving assembly line, which was launched in 1914.

The combination of technological innovations and the economic rise of the middle class ushered in the age of the internal combustion machine. Steam and electric vehicles were soon forgotten. Trucks followed cars by a few years. The Winton Motor Carriage Company made the first in 1898. Unlike cars, trucks caught on  slowly.There wasn’t a ready market for them. Horse-drawn wagons were far less costly and were more efficient in some industries. In the home delivery of milk, for example, the horse would move down the street

independent of the driver who was walking to leave bottles on the front porches of customers. No gasoline-powered truck could operate unattended like a horse-drawn wagon. And although gasoline-powered

trucks could travel farther faster, most deliveries were local and horses worked well for those. Also, the largest businesses had the most money invested in the existing technology—horses and the tack they required—and were protective of that investment and resistant to new technology.

The need to haul more heavy goods farther coupled with the addition of the trailer lead to increased sales of trucks. But it was during World War I that trucks proved reliable. Following the war the road systems in the United States and Europe were improved, making trucks even more practical. And each new innovation in engine technology, suspension, and steering made trucks the practical choice. Today we take gasoline-powered cars and trucks for granted. Some 45 million are built worldwide every year. But is the end in sight? Will other more environmentally friendly engines take its place?

© 2009 by Ed Sobey
All rights reserved
Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
ISBN: 978-1-55652-812-5
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sobey, Edwin J. C., 1948–
A field guide to automotive technology / Ed Sobey.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-55652-812-5
1. Automobiles—Popular works. 2. Mechanics—Popular works. I. Title.
TL146.5.S63 2008
629.2—dc22
2008046620

A BRIEF HISTORY OF WHEELED VEHICLE TECHNOLOGY

Why gas-guzzling cars? Why is our transportation dominated by four wheels powered by a gasoline-snorting engine? People have been using wheels for nearly 6,000 years. The invention of the wheel probably occurred many times in many places and no event of inception was recorded. At first wheels were powered by the

people who made them. Hitching animals to move carts started around 4,000 years ago.

Animals work well pulling people and cargo, but have some serious drawbacks. By the 1880s, New York City had to dispose of 15,000 dead horses that had been left in the streets each year. The city was also

engaged in the business of collecting and disposing of 20 tons of horse manure every day. Watching a car belch its exhaust may annoy us, but picture following a team of horses clopping down the street soon after

they had eaten their oats. There were serious health concerns about the piles of rotting manure left scattered throughout the city and the accompanying flies. People also complained of the din of iron horseshoes

hitting the paving; the noise was so loud that people had trouble talking to one another on the streets. Life for the horses wasn’t so great either. Life expectancy of a working horse was about four years, and many were mistreated.

The steam engine changed everything. The concept for steam power had been around since the first century—Hero’s Engine, called an aeolipile, was a working steam engine but an impractical one. In the 18th century tinkers started applying new technologies of metallurgy to containing and controlling the power of steam. James Watt made a huge contribution by building an improved steam engine with an external condenser. This innovation thrust steam power into the realm of practicable technology.

The first steam vehicle in the United States was a strange device made by inventor Oliver Evans. Evans’s contraption, named the Orukter Amphibolos, could run on land or water. It was designed as a motorized river dredge that could travel over land to get to the dredge site.

The dredge was probably never used but inspired generations of early American inventors to try steam power. Steam power for vehicles was popular well into the 20th century. In 1906 driver Fred Marriott set a land speed record of 121 mph in the Rocket, a steam-powered race car. The Rocket set a new record of 132 mph the following year before crashing. But steam wasn’t alone as a power source for vehicles. Scientific

discoveries had led to practical applications for electricity, including the electric motor. By the end of the 19th century, car companies were making both steam and electric vehicles. And a few companies were

starting to use the newly invented internal combustion engines.

At the start of the 20th century, internal combustion automobiles ran a distant third behind those powered by steam or electric engines. Electric cars especially were safer to use, provided a smoother and quieter ride, and were easier to operate. Industry experts predicted the demise of the gasoline engine as it was noisy and unreliable, and it delivered an uncomfortable ride. The only certainty in the future of vehicle engines seemed to be that people would be driving cars powered by either steam or electricity.

© 2009 by Ed Sobey
All rights reserved
Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
ISBN: 978-1-55652-812-5
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sobey, Edwin J. C., 1948–
A field guide to automotive technology / Ed Sobey.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-55652-812-5
1. Automobiles—Popular works. 2. Mechanics—Popular works. I. Title.
TL146.5.S63 2008
629.2—dc22
2008046620