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| "Infinity MPG" (Photo by Christopher) |
Fuel Economy: 1908 Ford Model T - 25 MPG; 2013 EPA Average All Cars - 24.7 MPG
"The average fuel economy rating of all new cars and trucks sold in June [2013] was 24.7 miles per gallon. " ~~ USA Today, 7/8/2013
"Ford's Model T, which went 25 miles on a gallon of gasoline, was more fuel efficient than the current Ford Explorer sport-utility vehicle -- which manages just 16 miles per gallon." ~~ Detroit News, 6/4/03
"The Prius is the first significant departure from the combustion engine to make any major inroads in the auto industry since Henry Ford invented the Model T in 1908." ~~ Newsweek, 9/6/04
By Fred Burks, From Want To Know
What happens when we compare technological advances in various fields over the last 50 to 100 years?
In communications, we've gone from the basic telephone of 50 years ago to answering machines, faxes, instant messaging, and wireless cell phones packed with cameras, GPS, and more. Just 50 years ago computers were huge, multi-million dollar monsters capable of only rudimentary mathematical problems. Today, the portable laptop on which I'm typing can perform functions literally millions of times faster and more complex than its ancestors, and connect me instantly to anyone in the world with Internet access.
In engineering and materials science, we have gone from basic woods and metals to sophisticated plastics, fiber optics, nanotechnology, and other high-tech manmade materials and technologies that perform all kinds of functions which would have been considered miraculous 100 years ago. Television, movies, microwave ovens, air conditioning, radar, and gameboys didn't even exist then. In astronomy, biology, medicine, agriculture, genetics, electronics, and most any other field you can think of, we are not only generations, but light years ahead in both knowledge and applications of what was available 100, and sometimes even 50 years ago.
Now consider the areas of energy and transportation, and the oil and automobile industries in particular. Technological progress in these sectors has moved at a snail's pace compared to the fields mentioned above. Most cars and trucks still use the same internal combustion engine on which the Model T depended 100 years ago. And while the Model T boasted gas mileage of 25 MPG in 1908, average fuel economy for 2013 according to the EPA was only 24.7 MPG."
And when it comes to energy, most of the world still depends largely on huge, polluting coal and oil generation plants not much more efficient than those of 100 years ago. How can it be that we've had such dramatic, almost miraculous advances in so many fields, while the energy and transportation sectors have made so little progress? Could it be that greed and the desire for economic and political control by the power elite of the world have kept the profit-rich energy and transportation sectors from developing as rapidly as they might have in a more open climate, where big money and political clout did not suppress technological breakthroughs?
Genius inventors for the past 100 years have made remarkable discoveries of new, more efficient energy sources, only to find their inventions either suppressed or not given the attention and funding needed to break us free of our dependence on archaic coal and oil-based technologies. Consider Nikola Tesla, the genius inventor of AC current, fluorescent light, and laser beams, who has over 700 patents to his name. Tesla proved in 1900 that the Earth itself could be used as a very cheap conductor of electricity. He successfully lighted 200 lamps without wires from a distance of 25 miles.
Why wasn't Tesla's wireless electricity developed and spread around the world? His main financial supporter, banking tycoon J.P. Morgan, withdrew funding with the classic comment, "If anyone can draw on the power, where do we put the meter?" For more on Tesla and his amazing inventions, see PBS's voluminous tribute available here, or the Tesla Society website. A Google search will turn up lots more. Hundreds of other inventions and inventors (including a personal friend of mine) have suffered a similar or worse fate.
Below are short excerpts from a number of major media articles which suggest major suppression of technological advances in the fields of energy and transportation. For an excellent two-page summary of this vital topic, click here. You can also find a wealth of reliable, verifiable information at our New Energy Information Center. By educating ourselves and our friends and colleagues on this crucial topic, we can build a critical mass of informed citizens who demand the release of suppressed inventions and technologies that will pave the way for a brighter, healthier future for us, for our children, and for our beautiful planet. Thanks for caring.
Read More
"The average fuel economy rating of all new cars and trucks sold in June [2013] was 24.7 miles per gallon. " ~~ USA Today, 7/8/2013
"Ford's Model T, which went 25 miles on a gallon of gasoline, was more fuel efficient than the current Ford Explorer sport-utility vehicle -- which manages just 16 miles per gallon." ~~ Detroit News, 6/4/03
"The Prius is the first significant departure from the combustion engine to make any major inroads in the auto industry since Henry Ford invented the Model T in 1908." ~~ Newsweek, 9/6/04
By Fred Burks, From Want To Know
What happens when we compare technological advances in various fields over the last 50 to 100 years?
In communications, we've gone from the basic telephone of 50 years ago to answering machines, faxes, instant messaging, and wireless cell phones packed with cameras, GPS, and more. Just 50 years ago computers were huge, multi-million dollar monsters capable of only rudimentary mathematical problems. Today, the portable laptop on which I'm typing can perform functions literally millions of times faster and more complex than its ancestors, and connect me instantly to anyone in the world with Internet access.
In engineering and materials science, we have gone from basic woods and metals to sophisticated plastics, fiber optics, nanotechnology, and other high-tech manmade materials and technologies that perform all kinds of functions which would have been considered miraculous 100 years ago. Television, movies, microwave ovens, air conditioning, radar, and gameboys didn't even exist then. In astronomy, biology, medicine, agriculture, genetics, electronics, and most any other field you can think of, we are not only generations, but light years ahead in both knowledge and applications of what was available 100, and sometimes even 50 years ago.
Now consider the areas of energy and transportation, and the oil and automobile industries in particular. Technological progress in these sectors has moved at a snail's pace compared to the fields mentioned above. Most cars and trucks still use the same internal combustion engine on which the Model T depended 100 years ago. And while the Model T boasted gas mileage of 25 MPG in 1908, average fuel economy for 2013 according to the EPA was only 24.7 MPG."
And when it comes to energy, most of the world still depends largely on huge, polluting coal and oil generation plants not much more efficient than those of 100 years ago. How can it be that we've had such dramatic, almost miraculous advances in so many fields, while the energy and transportation sectors have made so little progress? Could it be that greed and the desire for economic and political control by the power elite of the world have kept the profit-rich energy and transportation sectors from developing as rapidly as they might have in a more open climate, where big money and political clout did not suppress technological breakthroughs?
Genius inventors for the past 100 years have made remarkable discoveries of new, more efficient energy sources, only to find their inventions either suppressed or not given the attention and funding needed to break us free of our dependence on archaic coal and oil-based technologies. Consider Nikola Tesla, the genius inventor of AC current, fluorescent light, and laser beams, who has over 700 patents to his name. Tesla proved in 1900 that the Earth itself could be used as a very cheap conductor of electricity. He successfully lighted 200 lamps without wires from a distance of 25 miles.
Why wasn't Tesla's wireless electricity developed and spread around the world? His main financial supporter, banking tycoon J.P. Morgan, withdrew funding with the classic comment, "If anyone can draw on the power, where do we put the meter?" For more on Tesla and his amazing inventions, see PBS's voluminous tribute available here, or the Tesla Society website. A Google search will turn up lots more. Hundreds of other inventions and inventors (including a personal friend of mine) have suffered a similar or worse fate.
Below are short excerpts from a number of major media articles which suggest major suppression of technological advances in the fields of energy and transportation. For an excellent two-page summary of this vital topic, click here. You can also find a wealth of reliable, verifiable information at our New Energy Information Center. By educating ourselves and our friends and colleagues on this crucial topic, we can build a critical mass of informed citizens who demand the release of suppressed inventions and technologies that will pave the way for a brighter, healthier future for us, for our children, and for our beautiful planet. Thanks for caring.
Read More
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