Early sailing vessel bathroom facilities, known as “heads,” were basic setups with holes in a plank overhanging the bow of the ship. These rudimentary toilets leveraged the natural flushing action of the waves and were positioned at the front (the “head”) of the vessel to allow wind to carry unpleasant odors away from the crew. While common seamen used these public heads, captains and officers sometimes had more private facilities, like chamber pots, or seats of ease at the stern.
‘Poop’ is from the Latin ‘puppis’ meaning a raised stern; it had nothing to do with excrement. We got it through the French ‘poupe’ (which may or may not be related to Middle English ‘poupen’ which meant ‘blow a horn’ or ‘fart’).
One has to wonder if ‘stern’ in the sense of ‘rear end’ is associated somewhere…
Silly guy from India. I own an EV and love it. But adding a small wind turbine would just add drag. No thanks!
I tried to give them the benefit of a doubt and say the invention would be good for charging when the vehicle isn’t occupied, perhaps more easily packaged and kept in order than the equivalent charging current capability from photovoltaics, and operating at all those times and conditions photovoltaic output is reduced or absent. But groundbreaking, game-changing, disruptive, or taking the world by storm… I would have to be convinced.
Ah–I guess that that rectifies the confusion then!
Actually I’ve never understood why the motion of the vehicle, specifically the turning of the electric motors, can’t charge the batteries.
It can, and does (which is how regenerative braking works). The problem is that you need something, like momentum or gravity, to provide the ‘motion’ in the first place, and the amount of stored power you get will be less than the power you’d put into the motors to get up to speed. See the various arguments against perpetual-motion machines.
The original Milwaukee Road test of regenerative braking was a bit rigged in this respect. It used a heavy train already at the top of the grade to power ascent of a lighter one. I trust you see the problem.
The prospective problem with the Indian system is a little different. If it is driven by relative wind, it will have the effect of increasing drag. There are very few cases where relative wind ‘from behind’ would be faster than vehicle speed, and in those cases a simple sail would be more efficient than what is likely a variant of ducted fan.
In any case the actual amount of electricity from a device small enough not to look like a Wile E. Coyote project is not going to give you enough current to drive motors at reasonable speed. In this respect it is like the fuel cells on the ‘hydrogen trains’ – that system continually charges the traction battery, the same way the Fisker Karma used a comparatively small combustion engine running at its most efficient speed. If you provided enough fuel-cell capacity to accommodate full acceleration, you’d have much more expensive equipment, most of which would not be used after acceleration was finished.
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Woke-Hoagland, you gave an accurate and complete answer. Congratulations.
One could add: One cannot get power from any motor and get braking at the same time. Obviois.
Not quite as obvious as you might think! 
One of the great concerns with the diesel engine is that compression accounts for a large percentage of the power developed in the engine power strokes, and while it’s not as bad as the Braylon cycle, the peak torque from firing in the absence of complex pilot injection combined with the compression can induce torsional stress in the crankshaft and give rough running, particularly in small motors like 3BTs.
This can be solved by providing a motor to provide some of the compression energy, and a generator to absorb some of the peak torque. Note that an el cheapo approach can use the same device for both purposes. This is not of course motoring and dynamic braking at the same time, but very nearly that effect. You’d do a lot of switching because you’re compensating the resultant torque in the crank from all the cylinders. A better approach is to have ‘two motors’ for hybrid assist and run one as a motor for positive torque, and the other when not needed for strongest acceleration as a generator to harvest peak torque.
The local wind farm around here is not doing a good job with the farmers they’re leasing the land from currently. They had 2 windmills over the summer develop slow oil seal leaks and the contamination of the ground around is pretty massive. One contaminated about 480 acres and the other was 360 acres.
Kinda hard to offset that carbon footprint
The lubricant doesn’t contribute that much to the carbon footprint. It’s an old-fashioned chemical pollutant, like MTBE (which, as I recall, California mandated, then banned about a half-decade later). It’s nonetheless a very real concern to ‘the neighbors’ as these turbines continue to age out.
I was not prepared to see unaddressed leaks so bad the whole rear faces of the blades were blackened.