victor wouk, probably my personal favorite old harrisite, died last week. he was the first guy to build a full-scale hybrid gas-electric car. he hacked a buick back in 1971, replacing the big gas engine with 2 little motors, one gas and one electric.
i had the pleasure of hearing dr. wouk deliver a lecture in 1998, when I was in the new york academy of science's summer research training program. that very week, there was a story about hybrid vehicles on the cover of the times automobile section, and of course pleased him to no end... "they must have known I was coming to talk to you this week" he exclaimed as he handed out photocopies of the article. what a great feeling that must have been, to see the fruits of his labors full-born in the final years of his life. he certainly seemed triumphant.
I remember Wouk describing how he first started thinking of hybrid vehicles, when someone else asked him, as an electrical engineer, for advice on building a fully electric vehicle. After a few back-of-the-envelope calculations, he determined that the battery technology of the day would make such a creature completely infeasible beyond making a golf cart. I also remember him specifically asking if any of the students there were Harrisites, and slipping in a sly reference to the fact that he followed his brother first to Townsend and then Columbia, without actually mentioning who his brother was (I went up and asked him to confirm my suspicion afterwards).
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