Lindy, I have direct knowledge of "The Conspiracy" to suppress "alternate" [sic] fuels. I was there on a service station forecourt in Auckland [in Ranui] in 1984 when a guy arrived in a Honda Accord.
The service station attendant went to serve him [there were forecourt attendants in those days who put the petrol in the vehicles and even checked the engine oil and washed the windows].
<The way you can tell that a fan of "alternate energy" is a religious cultist is to ask them this question: If your preferred alternate source of energy is practical, why isn't it already in use?
Why not? Because of The Conspiracy™. The big oil companies don't want it to happen, and have been suppressing all this live-saving green people's energy all this time for their own nefarious purposes. >
It turned out to be an unusual request. The guy just wanted a litre of petrol in a little tank in the engine compartment, which the attendant put in. Asked what it was for, the guy explained that the car ran on water and the little one litre tank in the engine compartment was just to warm it up until a solenoid valve switched over to water, which was in the normal fuel tank.
We peered into the engine compartment and there was a chamber on top of the inlet to the manifold and a solenoid valve down by the 1 litre tank in the engine compartment. Other than that, it looked like a standard Honda Accord.
The guy said that he needed a bit of water for fuel too if the attendant could just add a litre or so to the normal fuel tank. He said it used hardly any so a litre or so would be enough. The attendant questioned this and the guy said just regular water was fine, as in the can used for filling radiators. The attendant got the can [I was personally STANDING RIGHT THERE WATCHING AND LISTENING TO ALL THIS SO I KNOW IT IS TRUE] and diffidently poured a bit in. The guy said to give it a good lot of water so the attendant poured in about a litre or two.
The guy went in to pay and the attendant went too to explain to the cashier that it was only $1 or so [petrol was cheap then] because the car runs on water. The cashier questioned that and the attendant said "I PUT THE WATER IN MYSELF" in amazed tones to emphasize that it really was true.
Anyway, the guy paid, went and got in his car and drove away.
I was there myself too and KNOW that that is true.
So when people say that there are cars that run on water and the oil companies are suppressing it, I can see how people believe that's true, having been there, in person, myself, witnessing the whole scene.
In fact, I was that guy who had the Honda Accord and drove it onto the forecourt. What wasn't true was that the car ran on water. But the guy, me, did say it was. Just for fun. The car actually ran on methanol and water is completely soluble in methanol, so I hoped it would dissolve while falling through the methanol and that I wouldn't get stuck on the forecourt as punishment for my smart-aleck joke. It did dissolve and I did drive away.
The little petrol tank was to run the engine when cold, to warm the water jacket swirl chamber above the carburetor so that it had sufficient heat to vapourize the incoming methanol before it entered the engine. There's a fair bit of energy needed to vapourize the methanol and make it burn nicely.
I imagine those guys working at the service station KNOW that there are cars out there running on water.
BTW, they are alternative fuels, even in the USA, not alternate fuels. My job [in part] included running BP New Zealand's alternative fuels projects, such as methanol, tallow esters, LPG, CNG, ethanol and contributing to BP International's alternative fuels projects.
By 1986 I was stopping alternative fuels projects because it was clear they were uncompetitive with crude oil as prices dropped.
The best bet right now is NOT alternative fuels, but little engines, preferably lean burn engines, with no catalytic converters, but with super-duper metallurgy and engine design with clever valves, ignition management, battery back-up, electric motors, low vehicle weights, with navigation and driving control done by the vehicle, not large, hairy, stupid, slow, primates. Traffic management should be based on electronic toll charges, varying by congestion so that roads are never over-loaded. Red traffic lights would become an anachronism of the 20th century.
If alternative fuel is a good idea, that would be cellulose converted to some liquid fuel, not corn or sugar turned to ethanol. But that doesn't exist yet. Coal and bituminous material must be more economic as a starting point, I guess .
Mqurice
PS: I admit I was too hidebound and unimaginative to make the Honda run on water, but I was imaginative enough to have some fun <UPDATE: There's actually another common answer to the "Why not" question. It's because you engineers are just too hidebound and conservative and unimaginative. > I do have my superconductor-based graviton spin reversal personal transporter and freight mover system prototype in the shed and development is coming along nicely, so I do have a bit of imagination. They are really efficient and are basically a flying machine. It's amazing. It's a flying saucer, GPS/gpsOne photonically/electronically controlled and navigated. The passenger just nominates a destination or direction. The vehicle does the rest. |
