Author: George Wand

“Whatever one man is capable of conceiving, other men will be able to achieve” – Jules Verne After talking ‘organic horsepower’ in the previous article, let’s get back to mechanical horsepower and onto the long path of the history of hydrogen and fuel cells. As you may know, one-third of all automobiles were battery-powered electric […]

“True greatness is when your name is like ampere, watt, and diesel — when it’s spelled with a lower case letter.”    Richard Hamming It is also great that new automakers use old pioneers’ names, such as Tesla, Nicola, Faraday — and who next? It takes many great minds and many years to make a […]

May the New Year 2017 bring you good health, happiness and success. May autonomous vehicles keep us safe. May hydrogen be our gas in the future. May fuel cell cars be in your dreams and driveway.   “Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.” Arthur Conan Doyle In retrospect, […]

A one-time diversion from the tedious, tiresome (NOT) history — includes fuel cells, though!! A Christmas story in three parts for the young and the young at heart – to read during the holidays ‘Twas the night before Christmas, and Santa was sad. He had wished for a small sportscar – an Audi TT at […]

“Three great actions; Explore, Experiment, Evolve.”                    Laila Gifty Akita The French Patent Number 731 gave Rivaz title to the use of combustible gasses, instead of steam, in a piston-type engine.  The combustion pushed a heavy piston upward in a cylinder.  Atop the piston is a toothed rod that engages with a gear wheel on […]

“Our duty is to preserve what the past has had to say for itself, and to say for ourselves what shall be true for the future.”         John Ruskin That awesome and humbling duty befalls historians. That said, this writer has experienced how much information is lost from as little as one-hundred, even fifty years ago, […]

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”       Winston Churchill Uncertainty about the future exists everywhere; change creates hesitation. Should the government go ‘right’, should it lean ‘left’, should it turn ‘green’?  Which energy policy should be promoted?  Nature itself seems uncertain of where to go.  […]

As a history essay, this treatise will dig into details –and into my previous articles– to illustrate particular actions, events or episodes in hindsight – which is what history is all about. You may find some of the information in this and following short articles boring and tedious. Don’t despair, as more pieces of the […]

Hydrogen and Fuel Cell History Having just passed the second National Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Day, we will probe the history and heritage of both in a series of articles.   Exciting times. People around the world read all the newest information on Kevin Kantola’s extraordinary website. The second, electrifying transportation rEVolution since the Model […]