Electronics 1914: Bosch invent the electric starter motor

In the first of a series charting events in electronics and technology from 1914, we make a start - literally - with one of the great automotive innovations. 

It is a romantic image from the early days of motoring. Straw-hatted chaps and elegantly turned out ladies stooping over the crank handle at the front of the car, waking their futuristic beast to life.

Yet in reality it was a hard, dirty and sometimes dangerous job. 100 years ago this month, Bosch delighted all automobile owners and chauffeurs when it demonstrated the world's first safe, commercially viable electric starter motor.

The man responsible was Gottlob Honold, lead engineer at the German company. Honold was a legend in the motoring world after inventing the high voltage magneto ignition system in 1901 - effectively, the spark plug that enabled the petrol-fueled engine to become the automobile standard.

Other manufacturers had worked at developing an electric starter motor, but none were suitable for mass production or met safety standards. Safety was a key element - the hand crank had a tendency to slip, or make the engine kick back and spit the handle back and hit the starter. Robert Bosch (1861-1942), who had already built the company he founded into one of the world's first multinationals, with factories and offices in five continents, was determined to develop a solution that could be mass produced and used in his cars.

Honold's starter motor could be operated by a foot pedal, using electrical power from the car battery. The battery was part of the lighting system Bosch had developed in 1913, which for the first time had given drivers enough illumination to drive in the dark without draining the car's electrical system. "The starter motor is typical of the products Bosch launched in the early days of motorization", said Ulrich Kirschner, president of the Bosch Starter Motors and Generators division. "All of them were designed to eliminate shortcomings in function, operation and safety."

The first electric starter motor weighed 10 kg and delivered just 0.6 kilowatts of power. Today's equivalents weigh between 1.9 and 17 kg and produce an output of between 0.8 and 9.2 kilowatts.

Production of the Bosch starter motor began at the company's plant in New Jersey later in 1914. By the mid-1930s 550,000 units had been sold.

Although the magneto ignition system was to be used widely in German military vehicles and aircraft during the Great War, Robert Bosch himself found war abhorrent. Charities benefited from the profits the company made (although Bosch assets in the US were seized after the war) and during the Second World War Bosch employed Jews at a repair workshop in Stuttgart to save them from the Nazi regime.

Bosch of course went on to become one of the world's leading manufacturers of automotive parts, electrical appliances and power tools, and a wide range of Bosch products are available at Rapid.

Your desert island chips

A few weeks ago it was National Chip Week, which at Rapid has always meant the electronic rather than the potato variety.

To celebrate this year, we asked you to nominate your favourite IC; the chip you would save above all others, the one which got you started in electronics, or did great things with. The component which, if the call came from Radio 4, you would take to your desert island.

Our social media channels sizzled with selections. There was no outright winner - in fact, everyone chose a different chip. If anything it showed the rich history of the humble IC, their diverse applications and the affection they can inspire.  

This is what you spoke, tweeted and posted.

@Rapidonline the Z80 - first CPU I got to grips with! But 555 and 741 would be a close 2nd/3rd.
— Matt Gumbley (@mattgumbley) February 18, 2014

@Rapidonline The revered 7400 and the venerable 741 :)
— Simon Walters (@cymplecy) February 18, 2014

@Rapidonline haha...I'm gonna go CD40106 cos it'll do 6 squarewave oscs real cheap... #chipweek
— concrete dog (@concreted0g) February 17, 2014

@Rapidonline NE5554 & TL072
— Trev (@M0TPX) February 18, 2014

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
Tell us your VIC by posting a comment below.                                                                

Rwanda: engineering change

Mariam helping a class with the kits

As a company which supplies resources to schools and universities, Rapid has always been happy to help charities and individuals doing educational work in the developing world. In recent years we have provided equipment and products for projects in countries such as Tanzania and South Sudan.

So we were delighted to support engineering masters graduate Mariam Olayiwola, who is spending six months as a volunteer in Rwandan schools. Her placement has been organized in collaboration with management consultants Newton, the charity Engineers Without Borders and Great Lakes Energy, a company which provides a network of sustainable solar energy solutions across the central African country.

The objective of the project was to give schoolchildren access to the kind of resources pupils in the UK take for granted. Schools in Rwanda can only afford basic essentials, meaning that science and maths lessons rarely rise above the level of "chalk and talk" exercises. As a result the ability of Rwanda’s most gifted pupils to work as engineers when they leave school is being eroded because of their lack of hands-on experience.

Mariam has been mentored by Newton employee Paul King, whose father Jeremy also runs STEM-based activities in schools. They both joined Mariam in Rwanda in January for a week of intensive teaching and training. The equipment provided by Rapid enabled Jeremy, Paul and Mariam to involve the schoolchildren in a range of practical activities such as building circuits, programming microcontrollers and activating switches. Two main kits were used, to demonstrate the principles of electronic control and solar engineering.

Paul & Jeremy King handing out equipment

It was the first time the children had been able to augment their studies with any kind of practical work.

The value of the project cannot be overestimated. As Jeremy King says: "At a specialist science and technology school I asked the question, ‘what happens when you pass electricity through a motor?’ It took me six minutes to get the correct answer. None of the students we worked with had ever made a circuit or made a buzzer work."

This is all the more remarkable since pupils at the Gashora Girls Academy of Science and Technology and Rwamagana Lutheran School were actually studying a university-level curriculum. 

Yet it was not long before the classrooms were alive with enthusiasm, learning and discovery, as pupils and teachers got to grips with the activities. "The students were transformed into engineers before our eyes”, said Mariam. “Working through problems, making mistakes, but most importantly enjoying and understanding what they were doing."

The feedback from students and teachers was overwhelmingly positive.

Comments from students included "the workshop was really interesting for me in a way that one didn't like engineering would end up liking it." "I thank you very much so may God reward you, but the time was not very much for me because the lesson was good. My question is that when will you be back for our next lesson. We loved you."

It is hoped that by sharing their new resources and skills, teachers in Rwanda will form hubs which can make fundamental changes to the way the sciences and maths is taught. The benefits are obvious for companies like Great Lakes Energy, which by employing home-grown engineers could expand its mission to bring clean energy to the country. Many villages rely on kerosene and other combustible fuels, which as well as being dangerous are proven to have an adverse affect on a population’s standard of living, health and education.

Physics teacher Robert helping his pupils

Jeremy hopes that another volunteer can be trained from Engineers Without Borders to continue the work after Mariam’s placement ends. UK schools with surplus equipment such as glue guns, battery holders and buzzers are welcome to contact Jeremy so that they can be sent to Rwanda.

For more images and information about the project visit Mariam's blog and the Engineers Without Borders website.

Bigshot Infographic: Understanding Cameras - A Beginner's Guide

http://www.rapidonline.com/bigshotinfographic