Free Air (1937)

Dramatic depiction of how gasoline and air mix to provide power in the automobile engine.

[@toughkix6910]

1 Tablespoon is ~15ml so the car used 45ml on a 1/4 mile. This is 0,045l/0,402336km and this is 11,2l/100km which is equal to 21 miles per gallon

[@CuthbertNibbles]

Today, I was going 120 km/h accelerating up a slight hill, using 10L/100km. It's incredible how, after almost 100 years, efficiency has barely doubled, in the face of computing power which has doubled 50 times since this video first came out. That's two times more range per gallon of gas, and 1,125,899,906,842,624 times more transistors in your pocket.

[@v12alpine]

Gas back then had alot more kick to it, I imagine modern gas would have alot less mpg.

[@woodyofp8574]

v12alpine Gas had more kick in the sixties maybe, but in the 30s, it was more like kerosene. It might have been somewhere around 75-80 octane, and most engines had a compression ratio around 7:1. Now obviously octane rating doesn't mean power, but it's safe to say the gasoline of the day wasn't exactly high quality.

[@lobehold2263]

@@woodyofp8574 It was bad and oil wasn't what it was today either. Those old engines didn't last no where near what they do these days. Cars were easier to fix in the past tho

[@derekcarstensen9134]

Your right on your calculations I had a Chevy 250 6 made over 25mpg we really don’t need all the bs they put on the engines the E.R factor of gasoline had been known for ever they just wanna add electric bs to tract us and shut the car down when they want to, with the advancements in metallurgy since then the lighter the better metals are so much more lighter now all the added tech they just add weight look at vehicle weights per passenger

[@cactuar6447]

The experiment with balloon with the engine's air supply was straight up genius to demonstrate how much air the engine takes

[@amanawolf9166]

Agreed. It's also interesting to think about current car technology with Turbo Chargers, thinking how much air those suckers gulp down. I don't even want to think about those super charged race cars that run on Nitromethane fuel.

[@redneckhippiefreak]

@@amanawolf9166 The funny thing is, As that vallon was pushed by the oncoming air, It acted like a forced induction .

[@dbeierl]

It would have been nice to see that lovely cutaway carburetor explained a little more, but it was a great dramatization of the amount of air that is required to run an engine; roughly fifteen pounds of air per pound of gasoline. About eighty per cent of that air is nitrogen and has to be pumped through the engine without contributing anything useful (of course if the atmosphere were pure oxygen everything burnable would have burnt long ago). It's interesting to think of gas mileage in terms of the size of a tube stretched along your route that would contain the necessary amount to power the vehicle along the route. For most cars that tube would be less than a millimeter square. I discovered this by accident when playing with Wolfram Alfa -- the European unit for mileage, liters per 100 kilometers, decomposes to the cross-section area of that tube.

[@CriminaIlyInsane]

the american accent back then was so elegant

[@PeriapsisStudios2000]

It's called a transatlantic accent, and was pretty much only used for film and radio. People in everyday life spoke the same as they do nowadays.

[@Mercmad]

The vessel at the begriming is a pre war Australian pearling lugger. Once common up in the northern parts of Australia they are mostly gone now.

[@daliberal]

I really think it is clever to focus on the Free aspect of air, though it is mandatory to run the engine.

[@stoneyswolf]

It's amazing this comment has been up for 9 years and nobody noticed how it makes absolutely no sense what do ever.

[@daviddavidson2357]

@@stoneyswolfNo oxygen, no burning, you pay for fuel, you do not pay for air.

[@herrakaarme]

After this video I believe in Free Air.

[@vitamulten1395]

Hey look, Vito Corleone at 5:01

[@watsisbuttndo829]

That music and narrator had me expecting a cameo from wylie e coyote at any moment.

[@FayazAhmad-yl6sp]

Very interesting, manual air pump and communication was there.

[@keshavmtech]

Beautiful...!!!😊😊😊

[@fujifrontier]

Why do I feel like he’s drowning those roses in DDT 😂

[@johnmorgan4368]

So the guy in the diving suit was Hitler... didn't see that coming.

[@Helperbot-2000]

i have learned more than i have learned in school!

[@michaelbogdon2632]

So they used about 2.75 tablespoons of gas per quarter mile, making 11 tablespoons in a mile. So your economy is looking like 20 mpg or so. Considering some of today’s vehicles can’t do that, thats impressive

[@lolbuster01]

The fact that it's all mechanical with no computer timing is also impressive.

[@MisterMikeTexas]

How did y'all get this film to sound so good?

[@kayakdog121]

I'm now fully on the AIR bandwagon.

[@jdhed1]

8:00 the 1st super charger....or Nitros shot

[@Trowo]

3 table spoons of gasoline!? For a quarter of a mile?! That sounds a lot!

[@jasonmurawski5877]

Tomas Gaming well this was a while back, so the engines were not as efficient as modern cars

[@testy462]

21.3 mpg.... 256 tbs/gallon. 3*4: 12 tbs/mile. 256/12: 21.3.

[@keshavmtech]

It sounds amazing to know this. !!! 😊😊😊

[@bakedsynth3447]

I mean for the time and engine power this was peak economy

[@preetcharan]

Very strange, the air is indeed free, but the process and the products cost us a lot if we want to run faster than the airspeed.

[@VinnyDaQ]

What the heck is excelsior?!

[@Meloadicto]

Wood wool.

[@zachary4279]

Its the liquid for the pensilator

[@daveybernard1056]

Often made from Aspen, it is used in stitched slabs for evaporative coolers.

[@uzaiyaro]

Imagine if EFI or common rail injection was a thing back then.

[@tsunami770]

By my calculation that is 25 mpg not bad for 1937 and considering we don't know at what speed but sounds to me like by now cars should be considerably more advanced

[@animalproductions3188]

Think about this. On my 1987 jeep comanche. 85 was its marked top speed, and 55 was marked with red since its a common highway speed for the vehicles time. So these 1940s cars probably only ran at 60mph tops.

[@superduty4556]

@@animalproductions3188 55 was marked red because that was the federally mandated highway speed.

[@lobehold2263]

@@superduty4556 so what he said?

[@RonRay]

@7:33 they actually use a "Table Spoon" to measure the gas... Ha ha!

[@1creeperbomb]

*laughs in modern fuel injectors, turbochargers, and super chargers*

[@jonv.6213]

Imagine telling them about direct injection systems at this time.

[@northerniltree]

So, 1937 saw the first use of the automotive air bag.

[@kalevra6999]

Is a shame in today so call modern world with automated software and what not you barley get a good engineer out of 1000 these guys had little to work with and did great 👍

[@johnmorgan4368]

7:57 the proving grounds at the Playboy mansion.

[@badreality2]

I have never seen a gasoline slide, before.

[@billbright1755]

Pump guys got tired and went on break. Diver guy wanted to clear the air about that.

[@yacinealg152]

This was considered fuel economic, imagine if they could see the world of today, they would be mind blown

[@shelliecarlson7015]

Free air? It's a buck fifty at Maverick!

[@deanstevenson6527]

Less than hree table spoons per Standing 1/4 mile. Better than 12.6 US miles per gallon. 75 liters for 402 kms. Take that 7.3 liter Godzilla F250....

[@RollerCoasters62719]

3:22 SS Normandie?

[@josephgaviota]

Diver Dan, in days before Jacques Cousteau invented S.C.U.B.A.

[@adysdelicias1465]

You think in those days till now we would be more advanced in gas savings but it's totally the opposite. At 4.50 a gallon and 20 miles a gallon we've done no progress

[@GamePlayShare]

Air should be sold.

[@starfire7538]

This Was Uploaded In 2009, I Was 2.

[@billyidolrockstar522]

2 YAER old ?

[@starfire7538]

@@billyidolrockstar522 If I Was Born In 2007, That Would Mean, I Was 2.

[@richardthomas1566]

And that air in that garden spray gun hits the air then that air blows back in your face as you in HaLe the air you need to breath .Then before long you will no longer be able to breath air and turn into dust that the air will pick up and blown by air all of er the world.

[@iitool]

Free Air (Patent Pending)

[@billbright1755]

They found that out on Apollo 1. It had pure oxygen interior. Three astronauts were lost.

[@NIGHTOWL-jf9zt]

It's a good thing they don't charge for air by the mile in addition to a gallon of gas. The air in this film was not FREE. It was compressed which a compressor was used to fill a pressure tank. They has a cost of either electric or gasoline engine.

[@sortathing692]

bottle of water engine and free air wont give you the tsutsutsutsu you want in 1.4mil

[@chasa4347]

Don't show this to the government, they don't want anything "free"..... LOL

[@elvd1296]

THUG

[@alexciocca4451]

Some day air will not be free! I remember when water was free . Then someone will figure a way to charge for LIGHT. Then it will be space itself

[@MrJohnnyDistortion]

Why is he yelling?

[@SirEpifire]

1: It was to pierce through the mix. 2: It was needed to get through varying qualities of sound equipment. 3: It was also just the authoritative, "matter of fact/that's the way it is" style of the times.

[@MrJohnnyDistortion]

@@SirEpifire Yea. Gotta "pierce" through all those silent spots and stringed/horn sections.

[@tyrstone3539]

@@MrJohnnyDistortion microphones at the time were not as sensitive as they are now

[@MrJohnnyDistortion]

@@tyrstone3539 Is that it? 😂 I think its for added drama.

[@BigEightiesNewWave]

With all the cars in world how is there any air left to breathe ?

[@timrattenbury4768]

"3 tablespoons of gas" america will literally use anything but the metric system

[@keepermovin5906]

I don’t know if this is a joke or not but tablespoon is a legitimate measurement

[@BloxerPlot]

@@johnogara3029 and the imperial sucks even more

[@SirEpifire]

Tablespoon was layman's terms because it was an easy house hold item that everyone watching could compare with. And yes, we most definitely used the imperial system exclusively back then.

[@STho205]

The original roman volume system now called US Customary or SAE had a system based on 2s 4s 8s. It was a system allowing for quick doubling or halving in the head.....not requiring decimalization or counting on fingers. 10s only break once before becoming fractured, but 2,4,8,16... don't 2 tablespoon per ounce 8oz per cup 16oz per pint (2 cups) 32oz per quart (2 pints) 64oz half gallon (2 qts) 128oz per gallon (256 tbs) Most who do not use it think the system is arbitrary, but it was a marketplace rational system for measuring out grain, flour, oil or milk at a market. Also the casual measure terms are more everyday familiar: a cup everyone uses daily and a pint is a double cup/a mug... which is a pound of dry weight for weight in pounds that break down to 16 oz weight. An equivalence like you find in SI as well. Also this film is to the layman 1936 and tablespoon was a measure they could relate to. SI is better in the lab with our decimal mathematics made popular in the 18th century, but it too is an old system that was developed to best fit the situation at hand with naturalists (early scientists) working through elaborate scalable formulas without electronic computers.... Which BTW work off 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 But that is hidden for you as the robots translate to 10s for puny humans.

[@sonaeg]

He speaks too loud