Boats, Automobiles and Batteries

Walt Schulz
Sep 7, 2018 · 5 min read
The Electric Launch at the 1893 Chicago Exposition

In the 1940s, American President Harry Truman said: “the only thing that’s new is history you haven’t read.” That prophetic statement certainly holds true for electrically powered boats and even electric automobiles. In spite of all the current media noise and hype by manufacturers, there is absolutely nothing “new” about electric propulsion. The basic foundation for using Faraday’s electrical induction motor for boats was laid in the 1830s and by 1882, battery powered electric launches were operating 100% emissions free all over Europe, the United Kingdom and America. The batteries were charged by land-based steam powered dynamos (generators) and the boats had speeds of 10 mph and could travel 50 miles or more on one charge. To put this allegoric time span into perspective, all this multipliable battery bank electric boat activity happened before Thomas Edison and company perfected (they did not invent) the incandescent light bulb in 1885.

The electric powered boat’s public attention and media breakthrough in the United States happened at the 1893 Chicago Exposition where over a million passengers in the space of only six months paid 25 cents to ride around the man-made lake to tour the Exposition. Fifty 36-foot electric launches accommodating 25 passengers were built for the Exposition by the newly formed Electric Launch Company, later changed to “Elco” in Bayonne, New Jersey. After the Exposition, Elco went on to build hundreds of electric powered launches and electric private yachts up to 60 feet for wealthy owners and companies. Because of their electric propulsion and battery experience, in 1919 Elco was commissioned by the US Navy to reverse engineer a captured German submarine and went on to become America’s leading submarine builder during World War II.

It is difficult to imagine or describe the tremendous interest and fascination the world had in the 1890s and early 20th century for all things electric. After millions of years of dark at night, the miracle of electric created 24 hours of usable light. Boats, trolleys and horseless carriages moved by some new magic without effort, noise or smoke. Outdoor electrical charging stations were being set up in New York, Boston and Chicago to charge batteries on the new all electric automobiles. Electrically powered inventions sprang up every day to make breakfast (toasters), eliminate stairs (elevators), and provide medical treatment that even eased “hysteria” (vibrators). The world was being massively transformed by electrical current. The new 20th century promised to be a life of comfort far removed from old century with its noxious smoke from coal-fired steam engines.

So what happened to electric powered boats and automobiles? The quick answer is: advances in battery technology came to a screeching halt when the fossil fuel burning combustion engine became the dominate means of power and propulsion. While average people relished and embraced the new electric dream, the big Wall Street boys in the oil business were not jumping for joy. Their investments in kerosene production, which was the only fuel of choice for lights in places outside metropolitan areas, were now in serious jeopardy. Major companies like Eastern Standard Oil were not interested in sitting idly by as the new craze for horseless transportation took hold. The oil guys responded quickly by investing heavily in combustion engine technology and a fuel they could pump out of existing oil fields and refined at kerosene refineries. The product they inexpensively created was gasoline. And because of the dominance of gasoline, the lead acid battery that starts and operates every boat, car, truck and bus engine today is essentially the same simple, single battery concept that was perfected in the late 1700s. But these batteries, while effective to an extent, are excessively heavy and come with some considerable limitations known by anyone who has ever tried to start a car in winter.

Dr. John Goodenough

In the grand scheme of time and invention, the next big battery breakthrough came what seems like five minutes ago when we replaced the lead in batteries with lightweight lithium, a naturally occurring element. Dr. John Goodenough, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, co-invented the lithium ion battery that is now ubiquitous in our everyday life. Suddenly battery technology seemed to race ahead; forgive the pun, but we had both literally and figuratively “gotten the lead out.” However, Dr. Goodenough knew his lithium ion battery technology was really not “good enough” for applications like boats and automobiles that require deep discharge and recharging periods. Now in his mid-90s, he has spent the past 18 years trying to overcome the deep flaws in his own technology. Some very important ones worth noting: the conductive solution in lithium ion batteries is incredibly flammable, the charge retention versus weight is still poor, recharging times are high, cycle life of the batteries from deep charging and discharging are low and discarded lithium ion batteries are a potential environmental disaster. Not to mention the frequently overlooked fact that we need to find a feasible environmentally friendly and sustainable fuel source that will produce the electric used to charge the batteries.

We are currently actively seeking solutions to these limitations. And we can take a moment to congratulate ourselves on finally shifting our focus onto electric power, providing we take another moment to bemoan the long hard slog on the road to perfecting the technology. The good news is that the big money people in the automobile industry now have a huge financial incentive to solve the problems of current battery technology. The bad news is that the clock is running out as years of greenhouse gas emissions have finally caught up with us. I can’t help but wonder where we would be today if we had focused solely on battery technology and not let ourselves be led astray by oil companies looking to sell fossil fuel. Perhaps we would have been a world of 100% electric automobiles and boats with zero emissions and the all-electric dream of 1900 would have been a quiet reality today. And so I say, with all puns intended, let us focus on making batteries better than good enough and let’s get the lead out of the race to build a better battery.

Walt Schulz

Written by

Naval architect, boat builder, pilot,founder of Shannon Boat Company, designer, engineer of Amphfoil, the world's first and only electric surface-flying boat

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