THE HUMAN BODY AS A MOTOR.
The result of some remarkable investigations made by Messrs R. E. and C. Crompton concerning the efficiency of the human body considered as a motor, were recently given to the Cycle Engineers' Institute. Heretofore the body has generally been treated as analogous to a heat engine, work being obtained from it through chemical action on the muscles. ~ But the Messrs Crompton believe that they have demonstrated that the, greater part of the energy yielding processes go on within the brain, or in the nervous system directly connected with the brain. In bicycle riders they find that- the greatest waste is from the brain and nerves and not from the muscles. The nerve waste, they aver, is proportional to the number of times that the nerve centres energise the muscles in order to make a stroke, and hence the. craving for high gears, which diminish the number of strokes and thus economise the nerve waste. Instead of high gearing they advocate an increase in the length of the cranks, for the purpose of reducing the number of strokes and of increasing their efficiency.
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Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 124, 26 May 1900, Page 2 (Supplement)
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188THE HUMAN BODY AS A MOTOR. Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 124, 26 May 1900, Page 2 (Supplement)
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