On 2008-08-30, Jon Elson wrote:
ED wrote:

[ ... ]

Hybrids are the coolest thing going. Wife drives
a Toyota Prius. 53+ mpg average on the highway.
Even better around town. The first car at our home
that I know I won't ever work on. ED

Wow, that's way better than the published numbers! I just
bought a 2008 Honda Civic hybrid because the published numbers
were better. Maybe I goofed! The Prius hybrid drive system is
absolutely brilliant, and I assume patents are preventing any
other maker from using that system - basically an electric
transmission, where a significant part of the power flow goes
between two motor/generator units.

If *that* is what the patent covers, then there is prior art. I
used to work at an Army R&D lab, and one of the things which I saw in
the big machine shop was a truck with a jet turbine driving a generator,
and each axle containing a pair of electric motors where the
differential would have been. And -- I saw it running around the place
sometime later. The turbines were connected to about 6" diameter
exhaust pipes about 10 feet tall or so -- and you could still hear it
coming with no problems. :-) This was perhaps somewhen in the 1980s.
And I remember that the army was in the habit of patenting everything
invented there which was not hidden under classification status, so this
almost certainly was patented at the time.

Enjoy,
DoN.

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