For the millions of people around the world that travel by train for business, leisure, and other reasons on a daily basis, there is often a lack of appreciation for the advancement of rail technology. This lack of appreciation is not exclusive to passengers and railway professionals often overlook how far their industry has come in such a short time. After all, rail travel was not commercially viable until the middle of the 19th century and was only made paramount to national travel after World War I. While some travellers take the train to get from one place to another without the hassles of driving, tourists and others see the train as a connection to a humbler past. Railway professionals should keep this in mind during their daily work.

Rail drivers, mechanics, and station personnel can benefit from thinking about how far rail technology has come in only the past few decades. Steam and coal locomotives of the past have given way to electrified rails which can promise higher speeds and lower commute times. Track signals have gone from men waving flags to the computerised systems of today, with onscreen notifications of track changes ahead. As well, the interior cabins and control stations have advanced considerably to reflect the rapid advancement of ergonomic technologies over the last two decades. An appreciation of these quick changes can make the drudgery of the average day seem more like a historical journey.

In addition, rail professionals need to understand that travel options have advanced parallel to the advancements in rail technology. People can choose any number of ways to go across town, country, or continent, unlike the past. Train travel may be improving by the day but so are automobiles, planes, and buses. Workers, tourists, and travelling groups can take a car or a bus to get to their destination but largely choose the railway. This choice is something that railway professionals should ponder throughout their work day.

Rail workers need to understand both the history and the importance of the railway for the future of the United Kingdom and Europe. Tourism for the European continent relies heavily on the efficient functioning of national and international rail systems, which are inexpensive ways to get from one place to another. Railways also need the daily customers that help form the majority of their revenues, which requires expert service and efficient daily routes. In the end, rail workers need to appreciate rail history in order to put the importance of their jobs in perspective.

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People become interested in the electric vehicles since 1830 when Joseph Henry invented the electric DC (direct connect) motor.

Only after the invention of rechargeable batteries in 1859 by Gaston Plante the electric cars were starting to become viable.

In the 1912 were over 34.000 electric vehicles. The EV industry vanished with the invention of the electric starter for gas-powered cars and also because of the cheap price of gasoline.

The oil crisis in the 1970’s mede the EV’s to remerge. General Motors, Ford, Sebring/Vanguard and many others started to experiment in the EV field, but with no success to make profits because of the high cost.

In the 1980’s th e poution cause by gas-powered cars was beginning to get out of control.

The carmakers sought ways to improve the air quality but they were not willing to risk entering th EV industry.

The only electric cars you could see on the roads those days were actually converted from gas-powered cars.

With the development of new type of batteries in the 1990’s, car makers were once again interested in the EV’s.

These new batteries were making EV’s viable by increasing thei range and performance.

But still, because of the high price of the batteries the average consumer couldn’t get one.

The many clients for EV’s were the companies that needed vehicles that would travel short distances at a time.

The best thing at an EV is the fact that it is extremely quiet, it can be recharged for practically nothing compared to gas prices and it is nearly maintenance free, not to mention the very low pollution level.

EVs are coming back, and it looks like this time, they will be here to stay.

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Some people do believe that hybrid vehicle started in the early 1900’s. In fact, hybrid vehicles have been around longer than you think they are.  The start of the hybrid technology was believed to be in 1665, when Ferdinand Verbiest and Jesuit priest began to work on a plan to create a simple four wheeled vehicle that could run by steam of pulled by a horse. Then in 1769 when steam-powered carriage was invented. Although this carriage does have the speed of six miles per hour, it is still hard to maintain enough steam for a long distance ride.  It was then improved when British inventor Goldsworthy Gurney built a steam car that successfully completed an 85 mile round trip journey in ten-hour times. Then in 1893 Moritz Von Jacobi sailed an electric boat on the Neva, using an electromagnetic engine of one horse power.  And in or about that year is when Robert Anderson of Aberdeen, Scotland built the first electric vehicle. However, the vehicle brought lots of problems like the limited range and a battery power that was difficult to recharge.  It was later then improved by David Salomon in 1870 when he developed an electric car with a light electric motor, but still faced problems creating a battery that could easily be recharged.  Then in 1879, the first electric railway was built by Dr. Werner Von Siemens. The wheels on the vehicle were driven by an electric motor drawing its electricity from the rails which were insulated from the ground and connected to a generator.  And also in that decade, year 1886 the business investors in London gained interest in developing an electric taxicab. The design was powered by a 28 cell batter system that would drive a small electric motor. Even so, this one did not come into regular use.  It then came year 1888, a company built a four passenger carriage for the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire it is powered by a one horse power motor and a 24 cell battery.  And on that same year, Manus Volk in Brighton, England made a three wheeled electric car.  Then in 1897, the London Electric cab Company began to provide the city with a regular service, using a cab powered by a 40 cell battery and a three horse power electric motor. It was called the “Belsey Cab” after its inventor, Walter Belsey. The cab can go up to fifty miles before the battery had to be recharged.  Come year 1897 where the Pope Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut, built around electric cars over a two year period.
Then after that year came 1898, the year where the first world’s first hybrid car the Lohner Porsche petrol electric “mixte”,  which was built by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche of Germany. Porsche gave the nickname “Aunt Eulalia” to the first series of hybrids, but it was officially named as Semper Vivus, which means “always alive. The first hybrid car can travel a distance of forty miles on a battery power alone. This car used a petrol engine rotating at a constant speed to drive a dynamo, which charged a bank of accumulators. The accumulators then fed current to electric motors contained within the hubs of the front wheels. Therefore, there was no need of drive shafts, transmission, gears, straps, chains, or clutch. And because of the hybrid car quickly success thousands of hybrid cars were produced by companies such as Krieger, Lohner Porsche, and Auto Mixte in the year between 1902 and 1920.  
In 1900 the creation of gas and electric hybrid cars has been seen in Belgium. It was developed by Pieper, a Belgian carmaker.  He introduced a three and a half horsepower motor which the small gasoline engine was joined to an electric motor that is found under the seat. The electric motor was, in effect, a generator that recharges the batteries while driving. Nevertheless, when the car needed some extra power to make its way up to a steep incline, the electric motor would kick in and provide a boost to the gas engine. And because of the popularity of electric hybrid cars the Electric Vehicle Company built 2000 taxicabs, trucks, and buses, and set up a subsidiary cab and car rental companies from New York to Chicago in early 1904. In 1905 an American engineer named H. Piper filed a patent for a petrol-electric hybrid vehicle. His idea was to use an electric motor to assist an internal combustion engine, mainly to add the ICE to let the vehicle accelerate to 25 miles per hour in 10 seconds, Instead of the usual 30 miles per hour. Then after three and half years the patent was issued. By that time, the engines had become powerful enough to achieve this kind of performance of their own.
In 1910, a company by the name of Commercial Built Truck, which used a four cylinder gas engine to power a generator, eliminates the need for a transmission and Battery Park. This hybrid was built by company in Philadelphia until 1918. Steamers and electric hybrid cars were almost completely wiped out in 1913. Sales of electric cars dropped to 6,000 vehicles, while over 180,000 gasoline cars were sold. Lots of car makers who still believe in the idea of hybrid car still try their best to put the hybrid cars back to the production. Like Baker of Cleveland and Woods of Chicago two prominent electric vehicle makers offered hybrid cars that can reach a maximum speed of 35mph and achieved fuel efficiency of 48 mph. And the Woods Dual Power was more expensive and less powerful than its gasoline competition, and therefore sold poorly.
And it then considered that the year 1920 to 1965 become the dormant period for mass produced electric and hybrid cars. However, Hybrid vehicle technology did not disappear and its development continues. Lots of people still believe in the hybrid technology. Hybrid vehicle technology becomes the answer for most of the global problems. Just like in 1966; U.S Congress introduced first bills recommending use of the electric vehicle as a means to reduce air pollution. After a long quiet period, hybrid cars show up again in 1969. On that same year  General Motors 512 was designed, it runs entirely on electric power at a speed under ten miles per hour. The vehicle ran on a combination of electric power and gas combustion from 10 to 13 miles per hour. Arab oil embargo became a huge problem in 1973. The price of gasoline soared, which created new interest in electric vehicles. The U.S Department of Energy ran a test on many electric and hybrid vehicles produced by various of manufacturers this includes the hybrid known as the VW Taxi which was produced by Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, West Germany. The VW Taxi was shown at auto shows throughout the United States and Europe. It used a parallel hybrid configuration allowing flexible switching between the gasoline engine and electric motor and logged over 8,000 miles on the road. VW Taxi is considered to have the higher range of efficiency than any hybrid had ever exhibited up to that time.  In 1974, engineers Victor Wouk and Charlie Rosen were part of the Federal Clean Car Incentive Program, created a prototype hybrid gas electric vehicle using a Buick Skylark body. The vehicle was tested and certified to meet the strict guidelines for an EPA clean air auto program by The U.S Environmental Protection Agency, but later been rejected. The American Motors developed a fleet of electric powered vans and delivered 352 electric vans to the U.S Postal Service, which they tested extensively. Unfortunately, the project did not meet with the level of success that everyone had hoped.  The years 1976 to 1980 were the year that hybrid technology has been a good help. The Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 1976 and U.S Congress enacted Public Law 94-413 were among  the law’s  objective to work with industry to improve batteries, motors, controllers and other hybrid electric components. And General Electric was chosen to construct a parallel hybrid sedan. And Toyota built a small sports car with a gas turbine generator supplying current to an electric motor, which makes it the first hybrid car for Toyota.  Audi introduced the first generation of the Audi Duo experimental vehicle in 1989. It is based on the Audi 100 Avanti Quattro. It has a 12.6 horsepower electric engine, which drove the rear wheel instead of the propeller shaft. And also use a nickel cadmium battery to supply the energy. Two years after that, Audi unveiled the second generation Duo, which is also based on the Audi 100 Avanti Quattro. Toyota came back by introducing the Prius in 1997, which is exclusive to its Japanese market. On that year, the Prius sold 18,000 cars and seemed to be the first significant mass marketed the hybrid vehicle in the world. Then Honda introduced the Insight, a lightweight hybrid two door model that cracked the American market in 1999. The vehicle could demonstrate a rating of 61 miles per gallon in the city and 70 miles per gallon on the highway.    
It then came 2000 the door of the new century is open for the hybrid technology. Lots of companies and car maker introduce and release lots of new and improve the hybrid vehicle of their own. Toyota released the first hybrid four door sedans available in the United States in 2000. And Honda introduces Honda Civic Hybrids, its second available hybrid gasoline electric car. The car appearance and drivability was and still is identical to the conventional Civic.  And in 2004 Toyota release the Toyota Prius II which won 2004 Car of the Year Awards from the Motor Trend Magazine and the North American Auto Show. The demand for Toyota Prius II was surprising, that they pumped up the production from 36,000 to 47,000 for the United States market. Lots of interested buyer’s waited up to six months to purchase the 2004 Prius. Furthermore, on September of that year, the Ford released the Escape Hybrid, the first American hybrid and the first SUV hybrid.  
The sudden increase of the oil product in 2007 had been a huge crisis all over the world. And because of that the production of hybrid cars and vehicle had increased. Lots of car companies and car makers around the world came up with lots of different kinds of hybrid vehicles. Some even convert their ordinary cars to hybrid cars. Lots of taxi cabs in the Philippines now a day’s had been using Autogas, used as an automotive transportation fuel or LP gas as an alternative to powered gasoline gas. The development of this kind of hybrid cars does help a lot of people who are having a problem with the oil price increase and become the answer to the oil price increase the problem in air pollution.

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We’ve all seen the commercials talking about how technology was all going to be about flying cars and cold fusion. In reality, though, we have our very own science-fiction-turned-fact in looking at hybrid vehicles which are taking over. They truly are efficient and are money-saving at some levels, but most consumers assume that the concept of electric motors is brand new, but the first experiments with electric motors began in the mid-1800s. Going as far back as 1832, locomotives and carriages were already using electric motors, considering that lead-acid batteries were already being used.

In the 1890s, though, the first electric cars were actually built at home in the U.S. and actually shown to the general public. To thank for that first electric car we have William Morrison, whose electric car was one of the first to be successfully tested. By the time 1893 had rolled around, there are already several models of electric-powered cars that were showcased in Chicago.

If you have the impression that electric cars are solely known to the public as the new economic fad, think again. Made by Pope manufacturing company in New York City, 1897 saw electric taxis around the city. In fact, by 1899, Thomas Edison was also involved with these ideas, even though he never saw his developments come to fruition.

In 1900, 28% öf vehicles in the U.S. were powered by electric motors, and over one-third of the driving populations in New York City, Boston and Chicago were actually driving electric cars. Had Henry Ford’s new automobile, the gas-powered Model T Ford, not come along eight years later, the electric car could have possibly been the more common vehicle. Unfortunately, Henry Ford’s Model T had taken over electric cars by far by the 1920s.

Around 1966, environmental awareness actually became a concern, prompting the US Congress to actually pass legislation regarding pollution, air cleanliness concerns, not to mention rising gas prices. As a result, the popularity and demand for electric cars has increased.

While most consumers think of old hybrids as being the 1998 Toyota Prius, the first actual hybrid vehicle was constructed from a Buick Skylark by a man named Victor Wouk in 1972. The Federal Clear Car Incentive Program in 1970 brought forward this need for hybrid cars, and Wouk’s hybrid was no different, having been built specifically in response to this Act. Later, in 1974, Vanguard-Sebring built an electric vehicle known as the CitiCar, and was another attempt to respond to the Incentive Program. Unfortunately, the company and program were both out of the picture by 1980.

Although there was an actual act passed by Congress to research and develop hybrid vehicles in 1976, General Motors didn’t actually start its research on their first hybrid vehicle, the EVI, until 1988. Thankfully, the entire country got a kick in the pants when California passed a Zero Emission Mandate in 1990 that required at least 2% of vehicles be ZEV compliant by 1993, and then 10% of those vehicles by 2003. Unfortunately, both of those goals had not been met by 2003, which still left the country in a position to research hybrids.

Finally, in 1997, Toyota was able to make a breakthrough, and the Toyota Prius was released to the commercial mass-market, selling over 18,000 vehicles in one year alone. It didn’t take long after that, and in the next three years, Chevy, Toyota, Nissan, Ford, and GM began to release hybrid vehicles, but they were full of kinks and problems. By 2004, most of them were scrapped and recycled.

In 2006, hybrid vehicles began to see a resurgence in production. This time, the kinks were worked out and now, hybrids will soon become the new standard. The fact of the matter, though, is that while the packaging may be new, the actual technology behind the hybrid has spent a century being developed.

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The First
Originally made for golfers with disabilities, the first golf carts were introduced in the 1940’s. By the early 50’s they had caught on with the entire golf community as well as a few retirement communities.

Mass-Production
In 1951 the first mass-produced golf carts were made available. These early electric golf cars made history by being the first electric vehicles that private consumers could purchase. This allowed for whole communities, schools, and towns alike to embrace the efficiency of the golf cart as a whole.

Golf Cart Communities
Some small-town communities really embraced the golf cart. One of the first was a town called The Villages in Florida, which was a large retirement community with a very extensive golf cart trail system. The golf cart was especially useful in retirement communities, because it was a safe and effective way for the elderly to gain independence and get around. Another golf cart enthused town is Peach Tree City in Florida, where golf carts are a major form of transit for the old and young. The local high school even has a student golf cart parking lot.

Gas vs. Electric
While most people prefer the electric golf cart over gas, these vehicles do certain advantages. Electric golf carts are perfect for the golf course or cruising close to home, but when they run out of power you may not be near a place to re-charge. When going further from home, a gas powered golf cart makes much more sense, as you can bring additional gasoline along with you and refuel anytime you want.

Inspirational Design
The golf cart is thought to have led on to other types of small transport devices, such as indoor power scooters and NEVs (neighborhood electric vehicles). The low speed capacity, affordability, and easy maintenance of golf carts make them very popular, and who wouldn’t want to play off of that idea?

Evolution of the Golf Cart
Over the years, new technology and interest in design have offered newer and more advanced golf cart models every year. Branching out to include golf carts with 4-wheel drive and utility tires, new golf cart utility vehicles were created. They were made to drive on all sorts of terrain, from movie sets to warehouses to gardening stores.

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Go karts were first created in the United States in the 1950s with the majority of historians crediting Art Ingels as the inventor. He built his first go kart in California in 1956 and it was during this post-war period where airmen raced these go karts as a way to pass the time.

They are referred to as go karts, go carts, go-karts, shifter karts, gokarts and many other differently spelled variations. Go karts are related to open-wheel racing such as Formula One and Indy Car. In fact, many top professional race car drivers, including Michael Schumacher, Sarah Fisher, Darrell Waltrip, Tony Stewart and Kyle Petty, got their start on the go kart racing circuit.

Go kart enthusiasts can easily become addicted to the thrill of racing. Once you’ve experienced the excitement it’s hard to let it go. There are ATV all terrain vehicles, dirt bikes, scooters, mopeds, mini bikes and motorcycles, but none give a driver any more of an adrenaline-rush than the popular go kart. They are simple 4-wheeled vehicles with no suspension (relying on chassis flex). They are basically just a smaller version of the professional open wheel cars and race on similar, but smaller, racing tracks.

Go karting can be a stepping stone for drivers desiring to work their way up to professional Formula One or Indy Car racing. It’s a cheaper way to get involved with racing. If a driver shows talent on the go kart circuit he can then move up to the more expensive divisions of motor racing including Formula One and Indy Car.

But go karting is not just for the professionally-minded. Most of the time go karts are raced by non-professionals, people just out for a little fun. Go karts have become popular all over the world and are found in most larger cities. For the faint of heart there are extremely tame tracks located in many family fun centers and amusement parks.

So what is a go kart? Go karts are made up of a chassis, motor, transmission, seat and 4 tires. Since go karts have no suspension the chassis must provide flexibility and yet retain enough stiffness to allow the kart good grip around the track and through the turns. The chassis can be either open or closed. Simply put, the closed, or caged chassis, allows protection for the driver in the event of a rollover. The open chassis does not.

Engines used in karting are typically either 2-stroke or 4-stroke. The 2-stroke engine is generally more of a specialized engine that is made by companies such as Honda or Briggs and Stratton (who also make lawnmower engines). In fact, 4-stroke engines are usually the standard type used in lawn mowers. The 2-stroke is usually more powerful than the 4-stroke and can attain up to 30 horsepower or more.

Sprint karts can usually get up to about 60 mph while the more powerful enduro karts can reach a top speed of up to 90 mph. Shifter karts use a manual transmission and a clutch to bring out all the engine has to offer and can reach speeds of 160 mph or more. These are not toys.

As with Formula One racing the kart tires can be either slicks or rain tires. Slicks have no tread and are used for best traction on a dry track. Rain tires have tread and are used during wet weather. And in icy conditions there are specially-made spiked tires that give good grip on the slippery ice.

Go karts are generally considered a safer and cheaper way to get into racing. With the many different levels available drivers can move up the line until they reach the professional level. With the right mixture of talent and practice racing alongside the top pros is certainly a possibility.

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