Talk:Impulsoria

Top speed
Its "top speed" of 20 mph doesn't really fit with the bit about it travelling 30 miles eight times in eight hours. The source for that suggests that it might be able to go up to 60 mph, but I don't know how realistic that is. Thomas Kluyver (talk) 13:31, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

I think the article in Engineer was a mixture of fact and informed conjecture. The gearbox in theory could propel it at 60 miles per hour (but the editor in that article said 60?) but the horses might lack sufficient power. It "could" do eight trips in 8 hours, but I'm sure it never did. I think the 20 sounds realistic, but conjecture, but do read the refs if you are curious. There are reasons to think that an incline would be very tricky as the angle of the treadmill would change ... but these are my speculation and therefore cannot be included. Do feel free to change the article in line with the refs Victuallers (talk) 15:05, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Performance figures
The power output says 2-4 bhp which seems incredibly wrong since it used 2-4 horses. The horsepower from one horse isn't 1 horsepower. It is a misnomer As stated by R. D. Stevenson and R. J. Wassersug in 1993 "Assuming a mass-specific rate of 100 W kg- 1 of muscle and a body mass of 600 kg, one horse could, in theory, produce 18,000 W or, since one horsepower (HP) equals 746 W, about 24 HP!" (https://doi.org/10.1038/364195a0)

If gone with the lowest estimate by the Iowa State Fair in 1925 (https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/handle/20.500.12876/11656) it would be 14.88 hp per horse so the impulsoria would have at the lowest 29.76 horsepower with two horses (14.88 hp per horse) and at the highest estimate 96 horsepower (24 hp per horse). SecretLars (talk) 00:00, 13 August 2023 (UTC)