Thread: Trivia and other useless but interesting items

Originally Posted by Tins

That's a given, seeing I wasn't born when the film serials were going around. Adam West as batman was more my era. Saturday arvo was Epic Theatre on the telly, if it was raining. The flicks were for special, like Ben Hur, Spartacus, How The West Was Won, The Magnificent Seven etc. On one memorable occasion we snuck into see Psycho.

That's a given, seeing I wasn't born when the film serials were going around.

Thats no excuse.

Psycho? That was a hair raiser I can still hear those screams as the knife went in.

Originally Posted by 4bee

Thats no excuse.

Psycho? That was a hair raiser I can still hear those screams as the knives went in.

As an eight year old it was something we all laughed about... until we went home, and to bed. Seemed clever, and tough, at the time.

Old Alf knew what he was doing.

"When German automaker Porsche was preparing to release its first electric vehicle (EV) in 2019, executives met with a roomful of historians to test a slogan idea: "The world's first electric Porsche."
From the end of the long table, there came a chuckling noise.
Heads turned to stare.
"That won't work," said Guido Eickholz, the director of the archive of the German auto-parts manufacturer, Reutter.
"It's not the first electric Porsche. There's been one done years ago and it's sitting in a factory in Melbourne."

How this car came to be the world's first electric Porsche — and end up in Melbourne — is a story about tinkering, racing, restoration, obsession, and the mostly forgotten history of early EVs.

"


Who would have thought a 1953 EV would be here in Melbourne

How the world'''s first electric Porsche ended up in Melbourne via Pennsylvania - ABC News
History never repeats might be proven a bit shaky

It is possible that EVs could have become the mainstream type of motor vehicle in the first decade of the twentieth century, as they had substantial market penetration, especially in cities.

But - the electricity grid did not exist. Electricity was distributed in many of the world's largest cities, but it was by no means universal in homes or even offices and businesses. And it was too expensive to use for much except lighting. Electricity in Australia did not become normal life until at least the end of the 1920s in cities and the 1950s in rural Australia. Having been brought up with electricity, I was surprised to realise well into my adult life that both my parents had grown up, gone through school and university, without ever living , studying or working with electric light until they were in their thirties!

Of course, there was no distribution network worth talking about for petrol either - but it was available and could be bought anywhere there was a railway or a road. Not in a bowser, but in small drums - typically two or four gallon drums in pairs in a wooden box. I recently read a detailed description of HMS Argus, the world's first through deck aircraft carrier, commissioned in 1918. As with all aircraft carriers, it carried a lot of petrol for its aircraft - 8,000 gallons in two gallon cans!

This, since it meant petrol cars could be used anywhere, plus the invention of the self starter in 1912, led to petrol engine cars being the ones selected for mass production for ordinary people, by entrepreneurs such as Ford, Morris, Austin, Citroen.

EVs could not be a practical replacement until electricity was widely available, but by that time the internal combustion engine had had over thirty years of development and was deeply entrenched.

My dad, who was born in 1904, described to me the excitement and wonder of having electric light replace gas in his family home near Como, in South Yarra. I can't swear to the year, but it would have been early 20s. The house I grew up in was built in the same year dad was, and still had some gas lighting fixtures. I was very disappointed to discover that they no longer worked. Given my pyromanic tendencies I'm fairly sure dad was relieved, not disappointed.

My dad was born in 1903, but in Orange, not in South Yarra. I believe he was first in a house with electricity in the mid 1930s in Dundas (Sydney suburb). When I was in primary school and highschool in the 1940s and 1950s in Sydney, most classrooms had no electricity and were built to maximise natural light, even the few built post war.

When I was in Sydney University in the late fifties, some of the lecture theatres still had gas fittings, although I never saw them used. Our first year geology theatre had a very impressive array of limelights with white tile reflectors to light the blackboards, but relatively new flourescent lights were actually used.

However, the Great Hall still had fishtail gas burners along the walls, and they were still lit on special occasions, although the fancy lanterns hanging from the roof had been converted to electric. (Probably because, hanging from chains, the gas supply hoses needed replacing! Or because being ten metres above the floor they were not easy to light.)

This may be of interest to some. I don't pretend to understand a word of it. Well, except for "and" and "the", of course.

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

"When German automaker Porsche was preparing to release its first electric vehicle (EV) in 2019, executives met with a roomful of historians to test a slogan idea: "The world's first electric Porsche."
From the end of the long table, there came a chuckling noise.
Heads turned to stare.
"That won't work," said Guido Eickholz, the director of the archive of the German auto-parts manufacturer, Reutter.
"It's not the first electric Porsche. There's been one done years ago and it's sitting in a factory in Melbourne."

How this car came to be the world's first electric Porsche — and end up in Melbourne — is a story about tinkering, racing, restoration, obsession, and the mostly forgotten history of early EVs.

"


Who would have thought a 1953 EV would be here in Melbourne

How the world'''s first electric Porsche ended up in Melbourne via Pennsylvania - ABC News
History never repeats might be proven a bit shaky

Aw I dunno, Melbourne had Electric Trams from the year 1897. A car would have been a piece of Strudel.