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Electric Driven Cars


absent friend

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I see the great fanfare this new invention is being heralded with and it makes me think of how far advanced Burnett's Bakery was with their fleet of electric vans. These were followed by milk floats by Stratton Dairy.

Now my memory makes me think of the big 'Wells Fargo' type, horse drawn, bakery van owned by the bakers at the bottom of Stephens Brae and 'driven' by a wee red haired man/jockey.

The bakery at Southside Road also had a horse drawn bakery 'van' but not in the same 'Wells Fargo' class.

Now I seem to think that the time gap between the horse drawn 'van' and the electric 'van' was not that long and I therefore wonder why it has taken all this time for the media to get excited about the 'new' power.

I don't remember Charles' predecessors running after the electric van with their notebooks and flash cameras and stopping the press for a headline in the Highland News, Highland Herald or even the Bulletin, of their day.

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I don't remember Charles' predecessors running after the electric van with their notebooks and flash cameras and stopping the press for a headline in the Highland News, Highland Herald or even the Bulletin, of their day.

Nor should modern day journalists. Electrically powered vehicles are a complete con. OK, no CO2 emitted directly, but where do they get their electricity from? A power station and the resulting increase in demand for electricity would have to be met by increased use of fossil fuels which of course burn to give.... extra CO2!

"But we could use wind and wave energy to provide that electricity!" I hear enthusiasts cry.

Sorry - no. You are already using as much wind and wave power as you can produce as it is, so should you choose to divert it to fulfilling the extra demands of electric cars you would have to replace it with... fossil fuels.

A similar con exists in the case of hydrogen as a fuel. Where do you get it from? Well, two main ways...

1) Electrolysis of water. Again, where do you get the leccy from? etc etc...

2) Conversion of (finite supplies of) methane into synthesis gas which is a mixture of the hydrogen you want and... deadly toxic carbon monoxide. What do you do with the carbon monoxide? Burn it perhaps to give you energy and.... CO2!

But apart from that, a fine memory for which many thanks. I still have a picture in my minds's eye from the front window of my house at 70 Kenneth Street on a winter's day, watching the orange Stratton milk float towed by a horse which was crapping copiously ino the gutter as it went along the street!

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I can remember the opening of a Hydro Scheme where, I think it was Lord Strathclyde or someone with a name similar to that, stating that this was a new era in power production and the longer the scheme ran the cheaper the power would cost(!)

I often wonder why this never came about :(

I don't know how efficient the Hydro produced power is but it must have little by-products to attack the planet.

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I managed a wee spin in the new Honda Hybrid yesterday, strange thing to drive, very very harsh on the road because of the size of the battery which stretches from the back of the car to under the rear passengers footwell, strange thing to drive as the petrol engine cuts out every time you halt at a junction and starts itself when you press the throttle.

Fair bit to go with electric technology in my mind.

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I don't know how efficient the Hydro produced power is but it must have little by-products to attack the planet.

Indeed, it's absolutely emission free and the only objection the Nimbyists and Little Green Men can come up with is that you have to flood a lot of land to have it.

But Hydro power still doesn't answer the question about electric cars because Hydro power is also being fully utilised to meet existing demands for electricity. Increase these demands substantially and you have to increase fossil fuel usage - unless of course you want a proliferation of new nuclear plants.... which will call forth the wrath of a different set of Nimbyists and Little Green Men.

The problem here is the First Law of Themrodynamics - which, roughly translated says that the energy has got to come from somehwhere.

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Now my memory makes me think of the big 'Wells Fargo' type, horse drawn, bakery van owned by the bakers at the bottom of Stephens Brae and 'driven' by a wee red haired man/jockey.

The bakery at Southside Road also had a horse drawn bakery 'van' but not in the same 'Wells Fargo' class.

The legendary milkman from my youth, Jock Clunas, would have had no truck with the new fangled electric milk floats.

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Now my memory makes me think of the big 'Wells Fargo' type, horse drawn, bakery van owned by the bakers at the bottom of Stephens Brae and 'driven' by a wee red haired man/jockey.

The bakery at Southside Road also had a horse drawn bakery 'van' but not in the same 'Wells Fargo' class.

The legendary milkman from my youth, Jock Clunas, would have had no truck with the new fangled electric milk floats.

Yes, that's for sure!!

We all know why as well. It was Jock's horse that saw him home every Friday, the day he collected his 'round' money.

A four legged friend indeed! I doubt the new fangled electric float would have been so knowledgeable and understanding.

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It is only when you think back to those days you realise the big change in the shopping habits that has taken place.

Coming from Culcabock, the shops all came to us, especially on a Saturday.

We had the milk, the bakers, the coal man, one ancient traveling shop, but I think he only stopped for his fly cup at a house in the village, the butchers boys, the paper boys......

When we did hit the town for 'shopping' it was Lows, Liptons and the Buttercup. Stopping at the mealmill at Kingsmills on the way home.

Saturday afternoon, off to the Thistle park to the strains of the 'Rock and Roll Waltz' as I passed the golf Clubhouse.

Excitement indeed for any young laddie!

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It is only when you think back to those days you realise the big change in the shopping habits that has taken place.

Coming from Culcabock, the shops all came to us, especially on a Saturday.

We had the milk, the bakers, the coal man, one ancient traveling shop, but I think he only stopped for his fly cup at a house in the village, the butchers boys, the paper boys......

.... and the ingin (onion) Johnies

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And the coloured (am I allowed to say that?) chap with his suitcase full of offcuts of brightly coloured material to allow mothers to run up a new dress for daughter at next to no cost.

My ancient memory is a chap called 'Kirkie'- the sweetie man. He had a bicycle with bags down the side of the back wheel for his stock and a tray in front of the handlebars for his display. As sweets were difficult to come by, he always had a good number of people around him, if not buying, at least we were able to see what sweets looked like and who the lucky ones were!

He parked his bike under the street lamp at the school gate on the back street and for that evening made some of our dreams come true by slipping us a wee treat. I can still feel the guilt that I had this treat and not shared it with the rest of the family, I'm referring to a mini penny dainty type sweet, not a lot to share round but that did not stop the guilt.

I suppose as sweets became more plentiful, he became redundant but his memory is still there.

This was the same era as Forty Pockets who used to bed down sometimes, huddled in beside the golf course tractor shed, at the top of the Fluke lane.

.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I mind the Milkman with his horse, was it Farmer's Dairy, who had stables down by the old Academy Playing Fields? I remember one morning my Dad urging me to run out and ask the milkman what the score was the previous night, when Caley had played Hearts. News wasn't the instant commodity it is now, and we certainly didn't have a telephone. Anyway, I ran across the street and asked with baited breath, "Do you know what the score was last night at the Caley match?"

"Aye, 6-0 to Hearts"

Dad was nonplussed. I don't think he was expecting a shock upset.

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