Club Meeting Speaker:- Roger Brookes

The Speaker was our own Roger Brookes, who gave us a glimpse of the future of energy in our lives highlighting the increasing role which electricity might play.

He started his talk by lamenting on the part British engineers played in the nineteenth century and whose efforts had not been respected by the nation as a whole.

He pointed out that energy and power were two different things, the former being a tangible block of power, whilst the latter was a mobile force.  Today’s talk would be not about the generation of energy but its use as a mobile force.

He gave a brief description of how electric motors had developed and showed examples of how they were now powered by Lithium batteries instead of lead acid batteries, which were considerably heavier and much larger. Considerable research was taking place which inevitably will lead to much greater efficiency and extended life .The old fashioned milk float, powered by lead acid batteries is already being relegated to the history books.

He pointed out that petrol was 30% more efficient than diesel and in the immediate future he predicted that a combination of petrol and lithium battery would lead the way in propulsion of motor vehicles, Drones are already with us and aeroplanes driven with lithium batteries would following due course.

Time did not permit for questions, but Roger was able to give further explanations on his models shown after the meeting.

Members wishing to learn more about his predictions can listen to Rotary Round-up on Redshift Radio on 31^st October.

John Fishburne