Powering your combine
A year or 10 ago, whilst visiting in California, we were shown two electric cars that were designed to replace internal combustion automobiles and the smog they caused.
These electrics didn’t look too comfortable and they only had room for a driver and one passenger. Maximum speed at that time was 35 miles per hour and you could travel less than 100 miles before you had to recharge the huge batteries.
Since then some advances have been made but electric cars still are a couple of leagues away from being an acceptable replacement for the fossil fuel driven motor car.
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Watching a huge combine in a cloud of dust snuffling up a swath of wheat this fall had me musing about the future of motorized agriculture. Will the day come when harvesting is done with some other form of power?
Those concerned about the environment suggest the diminishing ozone layer will force us to seek less polluting forms of power sources.
Solar power might have limitations for farmers who combine 18 or 20 hours a day. Wind power could have limitations as well.
Perhaps we should go back to the last century’s experiments with perpetual motion. Or maybe we could develop pulleys so efficient that a farmer could power a combine by pedaling. I suspect this latter notion won’t sell.
The most remarkable achievement in efficient human-powered activity relates to helps developed for paralyzed people in wheel chairs. By a slight movement of the head one can write, respond and move about.
Perhaps the day will come when a farmer can boot up his tractor by thinking about it.
Don’t waste time laughing at the idea today. Wait 20 years and then laugh.
