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Car Mileage: 1908 Ford Model T - 25 MPG
2004 EPA Average All Cars - 21 MPG
"Consumers and regulators are putting more pressure on the auto
industry to enhance fuel economy, which was stagnant at an average
20.8 miles per gallon among all 2004 models and below the 1988 high
of 22.1 mpg." --
Detroit News, 4/11/05
"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, 9/20/04
"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
Dear friends,
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 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, teflon, fiber optics,
and other manmade materials which 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 in 1905. In astronomy, biology, medicine,
agriculture, genetics, electronics, and most any other field you can
think of, we are light years ahead in both knowledge and
applications of what was available 100, or 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. Automobiles still use the same
internal combustion engine on which the Model T depended almost 100
years ago. And while the
Model T
boasted 25 MPG in 1908, average car mileage for 2004 according to
the EPA was only 20.8 MPG! The
Detroit News admits that even this EPA figure is inflated,
as "most drivers achieve only about 75 percent of the [EPA mileage]
figures."
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 had so little
progress? Could it be that greed and the desire for economic and
political control 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 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
oil-based technologies. Consider Nobel Prize winner
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 at
http://www.pbs.org/tesla/index.html or the Tesla Society website
at
http://www.teslasociety.com/biography.htm 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 manipulation of technological advances in the fields
of energy and transportation. For an excellent two-page summary
of this vital topic, see
http://www.WantToKnow.info/newenergysources 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 will 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 planet.
Thanks for caring, and you have a good day.
With best wishes,
Former
Presidential Interpreter Fred Burks for the
WantToKnow.info team
This excellent article originally published at:
http://www.wanttoknow.info
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