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Bottled Lightning
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Bottled Lightning

Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy

Seth Fletcher
Hill and Wang, 2011

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Editorial Rating

7

Recommendation

If you think electric cars are new, think again. Inventor Thomas Edison developed batteries to run cars in 1902. Then a funny thing happened: Gas-powered cars captured the public’s imagination. But gasoline prices, pollution and the politicization of oil sales are causing increased public interest in alternative fuels and people are again becoming interested in electric cars. Popular Science senior editor Seth Fletcher provides a fast-paced story about the battery-driven factors that could reshape the world auto industry, explains how drivers can electrify their cars’ energy needs and suggests how the industrialized world can turn away from oil. getAbstract recommends Fletcher’s timely, well-told overview to those who seek a glimpse into an oil-free future.

Take-Aways

  • The ancient Greeks discovered amber’s magnetic properties; the word for “amber” in Greek is “electron,” the root word for “electricity.”
  • The first electric car debuted already in 1888. It looked like a tricycle and sounded like a “4 mph banshee.”
  • The World Columbian Exposition in 1893 featured an electric car that went 20 mph.

About the Author

Seth Fletcher is a senior editor at Popular Science magazine.

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    S. I. 3 years ago
    Why audio doesn’t match the text summary?!
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      3 years ago
      Hello Salar,

      Thank you for your question. This summary and many other audio summaries do not match the written text because our audios summaries originally were not designed that way. This summary is one of the older summaries in our library. We added it in 2012.
    • Avatar
      3 years ago
      Hello Salar,

      Thank you for your question. This summary and many other audio summaries do not match the written text because our audios summaries originally were not designed that way. This summary is one of the older summaries in our library. We added it in 2012.