On Thursday, 17 November 2016 20:32:04 UTC, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 17/11/16 20:16, Roger Hayter wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 17/11/16 19:40, Roger Hayter wrote:
charles wrote:
In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 17/11/16 18:47, NY wrote:
tabbypurr wrote in message
...
On Thursday, 17 November 2016 18:28:43 UTC, charles wrote:

'cos car electrics are dc

Except for Ford model T.

Is there any fundamental reason why early pre-electronic car electrics
were DC and not AC?

Yes.

to go further, the car electrics rely on a battery - this inherantly a DC
device.

They need not rely on a battery. If, for example, you have a starting
handle and carbide lamps.

You will however need a magneto

AC ignition could easily have been devised. Even if it actually wasn't.


No, actually it couldn't.

How you gonna time a spark if your AC happens to be zero at that time?

Remember even rectifiers were hard to come by then.

The solution was the magneto. Whether you call that AC or DC is debatable.

Theoretically ac could have been connected to a stepup transformer for long enough to ensure a spark happened. But an LT sliding metal contact timing switch would have worn, oxidised & pitted badly. IIRC reliable distributors came later.


NT