Nikola Tesla (b. 9-10 July 1856, Smiljan, Lika, Croatia; d. 7 January 1943, New York, NY) converted a Pierce Arrow automobile to electric in 1931. One of the luxury cars of the period, the engine had been removed, leaving the clutch, gearbox and transmission to the rear wheels undisturbed. The gasoline engine had been replaced with a round, completely enclosed electric motor of approximately 1 meter in length and 65 cm in diameter, with a cooling fan in front. Reputedly, it had no distributor. Tesla was not willing to say who had manufactured the engine. It was possibly one of the divisions of Westinghouse. http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/new/tesla.htm The "energy receiver" (gravitational energy converter) had been built by Nikola Tesla himself. The dimensions of the converter housing were approximately 60 X 25 X 15 cm. It was installed in front of the dashboard. Among other things, the converter contained 12 vacuum tubes, of which three were of the 70-L-7 type. A heavy antenna, approximately 1.8 meters long, came out of the converter. This antenna apparently had the same function as that on the Moray converter (see below). Two thick rods protruded approximately 10 cm from the converter housing. Tesla pushed them in, saying "Now we have power." the motor achieved a maximum of 1,800 rpm. Tesla said it was fairly hot when operating, and therefore a cooling fan was required. For the rest, he said there was enough power in the converter to illuminate an entire house, besides running the car engine. The car was tested for a week, reaching a top speed of 90 miles per hour effortlessly. Its performance data were at least comparable to those of an automobile using gasoline. At a stop sign, a passerby remarked that there were no exhaust gases coming from the exhaust pipe. Petar answered "We have no motor." Tesla faced the same opposition forces and constraints as in 2006. We have much to relearn.
