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Bret Cahill
Guest
During the late 19th - 20th Centuries every inventor seemed to be looking for a clever dual purpose that might simplify things, reduce the number of parts and materials. Some were quite good, i.e., using the rim of the wheel as a braking surface.
Today it's different. You aren't taken seriously unless every task has it's own dedicated component, i.e., disk brakes on bicycles which, in fact really do work better in the rain.
In contrast to mechanical design everything is _always_ dedicated in electrical circuits. Maybe electrical has become so influential it is pulling mechanical toward dedicated.
More likely it's an additional feature to sell, usually tweaking but often game changing.
There are several old patents about putting solar PV on your vehicle to run a deep freezer to store ice for AC. Maybe 6 l of ice would last 30 minutes then you'd switch to regular AC on the freeway. Few want ugly solar cells on their vehicle but other than that it isn't a bad idea. None of the designs were properly engineered. They were blowing air across the ice when they needed a coolant loop going through the ice to a heater core w/ blower.. This additional step is something most anyone with a background in heat transfer would have suggested to the lay inventors in about 2 seconds.
These philosophical issues, general trends need to be discussed more. Sure it's an additional step but . . . .
Bret Cahill
Today it's different. You aren't taken seriously unless every task has it's own dedicated component, i.e., disk brakes on bicycles which, in fact really do work better in the rain.
In contrast to mechanical design everything is _always_ dedicated in electrical circuits. Maybe electrical has become so influential it is pulling mechanical toward dedicated.
More likely it's an additional feature to sell, usually tweaking but often game changing.
There are several old patents about putting solar PV on your vehicle to run a deep freezer to store ice for AC. Maybe 6 l of ice would last 30 minutes then you'd switch to regular AC on the freeway. Few want ugly solar cells on their vehicle but other than that it isn't a bad idea. None of the designs were properly engineered. They were blowing air across the ice when they needed a coolant loop going through the ice to a heater core w/ blower.. This additional step is something most anyone with a background in heat transfer would have suggested to the lay inventors in about 2 seconds.
These philosophical issues, general trends need to be discussed more. Sure it's an additional step but . . . .
Bret Cahill