Eugene register-guard., October 21, 1962, Image 65

Come with Me in My '83
(Continued from page 4)
ber of times. All the basic problems have been
solved, and I should think that 1983 would see
flying automobiles as nearly foolproof as any
thing designed to leave the earth can be.
Smaller cars, smaller engines to allow more
economy, more luxurious-living devices are in the
future but what kind of engines?
- . It's a cliche to say that the standard internal
combustion, gasoline-burning piston engine is ill
suited to running an automobile, and, like most
cliches, it's true. But so much money and genius
have gone into the conventional i.e. engine that,
basically unsuitable though it is, it has been made
to work very well, and it's going to go on work
ing' for a long time.
Not forever, though. Alternatives already exist,
and some of them are exciting indeed.
Most often mentioned is the gas turbine, dem
onstrated a few months ago in a coast-to-coast
run. The gas turbine is a direct offshoot of the
jet engine used in airplanes.
A gas turbine can be half the size of a compar
able internal-combustion piston engine, and is
"much simpler. In essence it works like a water
wheel. Kerosene is burned under compression and
the resulting expanding gases, rushing against
the blades of a turbine wheel, spin it. Most of the
early difficulties high fuel consumption, danger
ous heat have been overcome, and one American
manufacturer intends gelling a limited number
of turbine cars in 1963.
THE ROTARY internal-combustion engine al
ready runs automobiles in Germany. This
engine works by compressing gasoline and setting
a spark to it, burning it so fast that it almost
explodes. This is not done in a set pf gun-shaped
cylinders, as in a piston engine, but in a chamber
shaped like a flattened circle using only one piston
and giving that one a circular motion instead of
up-and-down. Hardly bigger than a teakettle, it
will power a small four-passenger automobile.
An American manufacturer has worked on a
car running on a free-piston engine. This engine
is notable for its indifference to fuel, being quite
able to burn almost any kind of oil. Explained
most simply, the free-piston engine burns fuel
between two opposed pistons in the same cylinder
and uses the exhaust gas to drive a turbine wheel.
The fuel cell is running tractors today and is
just as capable of running automobiles. The fuel
cell produces electricity in great volume by com
bining oxygen and a fuel such as hydrogen or
propane. It is almost perfectly silent.
One more thing: I suspect that 1983's tires will
be really remarkable. They'll be absolutely skid
proof on any kind of rain-soaked road, remark
ably sure-footed even on ice. They'll last the ordi
nary first-owner life of the car, and they'll be
nearly impervious to road damage. About as many
1983 cars will carry spares as carry starting
cranks today.
All in all, guessing what the automobile in
dustry will bring forth in the next 20 years is as
exciting as recalling what has been done in. the
last 20 years. Remember the war year of 1943?
Just being able to buy a new car was a dream
then, and we hardly conceived the improvements
we now take for granted.
It's a sure bet that for all predictions today, we
are only catching glimpses of what the auto in
dustry has in store for the next 20 years.
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