Edison Battery Solves Old Problems (1909), by Eric Martocci

Electric Cars of the Future: the Edison Battery

3 Responses to "Edison Battery Solves Old Problems (1909), by Eric Martocci"

Marissa Liebman says:

April 27, 2014 at 1:46 pm

Your historical research was great, very in depth. I had no idea batteries were around 2000 years ago! I really like how you went into the specific changes batteries underwent and later the changes to vehicles over time. You spoke very clearly and had a good variety of images. It was a little difficult to tell, but I think your overall theme was why the electric car did not take off even if it seemed like the initial forerunner. I would really like to have heard you make a note about the hybrid and electric cars we are producing today. It seems like those vehicles are making a comeback. I can’t predict if their staying power will outperform gas vehicles, but they certainly have made a return. As far as I know the electric automobile died out for a while before making resurgence. Maybe you could have spoken about this in lieu of some of the battery history.

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Jacob Haase says:

April 27, 2014 at 11:21 pm

This slide cast was extremely informative and well executed. While packed with plenty of scientific detail, it was presented in such a way that made it enjoyable to watch. As we’ve seen in our study of historical technologies, it’s all about context, and this slide cast exemplified this, providing plenty of it. Eric did a great job starting at the roots of the voltaic cell battery thousands of years ago. One thing that I found particularly interesting was that when automobiles were first being invented, electric cars were more preferable than gasoline cars. It seems as if cars are doing a full circle- they started electric, moved to gasoline, and are once again being made electric. Eric had a great beginning slide saying just this. This choice by car companies to make electric and then gasoline cars in the early 1900’s begs me to ask the progress question. While a hundred years ago people may have disagreed, many people nowadays would probably refer to electric cars as progress.
This presentation was very educational and the content was on point. The only thing I would’ve done differently would’ve been to eliminate the silent portions at the end of some slides. I my opinion, maintaining the flow of the slide cast is more important than having it fit the 20×20 format exactly. But that’s only a minor issue. Well done.

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Ethan Ossolinski says:

April 28, 2014 at 3:40 am

It’s easy in a history of technology course to lose track of what exactly we’re talking about, it seems at times we spend far more time discussing the social perceptions of a technology instead of the historical causes and effects of a technology. I think that Eric’s presentation of the topic of the electric battery addresses this by providing a very fluid progression of the history of the battery without neglecting the societal impacts that are associated with its development. I found it very interesting that Edison and Ford had intended at one point to go into business together, and am also intrigued to figure out more about what may have caused the fire that ended the deal. In critiquing this slide-cast I think its worth mentioning that how the idea of progress surrounding the electric battery has changed was largely left out. However, in this context I think it may have been the right decision. When the battery first made it debut in the automobile industry in the early twentieth century there were several power options. The electric battery certainly wouldn’t have seemed like progress with a bombardment of ads suggesting that steam and internal combustion were simultaneously the technology that “would change the world”. Overall a refreshing technical perspective on the history of the electric battery, great job.

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