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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

I don't know why this is so hard a nut to crack unless it is, as I've 
opined, a horror of embracing what the reality means.

Picture, if you will, a washing machine whose electric motor has been 
replaced by a gearbox and a hand crank (or treadle or capstan or whatever).  
You 
have to turn the hand crank continuously to operate the agitator, pump, and 
to spin the tub.  You can probably imagine that this is a lot of work.  No, 
it doesn't help to gear the crank.  If you can turn it with half the force, 
you must turn it with twice the speed (no free lunch again).  You would get 
a very hard workout washing one load of clothes with this arrangement.

Now, what if we left the washer intact, still powered by its electric 
motor, and instead we connected the hand crank to a generator and the output 
of 
that generator powered the washing machine.  From the comments on alternative 
energy, it seems as if most people visualize a small crank like on a coffee 
grinder or sausage grinder and that they would turn it with one hand, 
pinkie extended, while holding the teacup in the other hand.

But the reality of the physics involved is that it would be much harder .. 
much more work ... to crank a generator to power the washing machine than it 
would to just crank the washing machine directly.

If this fact were kept in mind, a lot of the misconception about alternate 
energy could be eliminated.  You can do any work - mechanical, heating, 
lighting - directly much more efficiently than you do it by converting that 
energy into electricity and then consuming the electricity.  A gallon of 
kerosene will produce many, many times the light that running a (diesel) 
generator 
on that gallon of kerosene and then using even the most efficient electric 
lights possible.

James</HTML>