updated 11-19-2014

High Mileage Carburetors

Many of us have heard that there were people years ago, back in the 60’s(?), who developed very efficient “carburetors”, that ran on fumes and got 100 mpg or more. I do remember an article in Popular Mechanics back in the 1960’s which even got the cover photo for the month, telling about a guy who built a carburetor for his sedan which vaporized the fuel and enabled his V8 to get over 100 mpg. — editor, FEV

From Popular Science, December 1957, page 79:

“The fuel, of course, goes along in suspension.” “… Raw, indigestible fuel slobbers into the cylinders — into some more than others.” “… Slobbering engines are fuel hogs.”

“to mix raw gasoline with air, and attempt to explode it in an internal combustion engine is a very wasteful, costly, and polluting practice. It also shortens the life of the engine and exhaust system.”

Testing:

reporter: NBC news provided five 1-gallon gas cans. a few teaspoons of gasoline were put in the cans and tilted them an an angle.

The question, will gas vapors coming out of the cans ignite and travel back to cause an explosion inside the cans when the flame is place below the spout. All five cans tested exploded.

When is it most likely to happen? when it’s cool. there’s only a little fuel left and the can is tilted to get out the last drops.

http://www.today.com/video/today/53733179#53733179

spraying-injecting liquid gasoline into an engine is a waste of fuel.

gasoline vapor concentration by volume:

The minimum concentration of a particular combustible gas or vapor necessary to support its combustion in air is defined as the Lower Explosive Limit (LEL) for that gas (examples: hydrogen, butane, propane, gasoline fumes, etc.). Below this level, the mixture is too “lean” to burn. The maximum concentration of a gas or vapor that will burn in air is defined as the Upper Explosive Limit (UEL).

At the UEL, is the most efficient – greatest explosion. Beyond that, less oxygen is available for combustion.

LEL for gasoline vapor: 1.2%

UEL for gasoline vapor: 7.1%

LEL for Propane: 2.1%

UEL for Propane: 9.5%

from Gas Data Book, 7th edition, copyright 2001 by

Matheson Gas Products, and from Bulletin 627, Flammability Characteristics of

Combustible Gases and Vapors, copyright 1965 by U.S.Department of the Interior,

Bureau of Mines. All concentrations in percent by volume.

“Exceptional Mileage Claimed For New Carburetor”, Mass Transportation, December 1936, page 406. This carburetor was the invention of Charles Nelson Pogue, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The Pogue carburetor system received widespread news coverage in 1935 and 1936.

“Test made with passenger automobiles indicates that cars equipped with this new carburetor will operate 200 miles per gallon.

Although the exceptional mileage is of greatest importance, the new carburetor is said to have many other advantages in the way of reducing maintenance.”

In the course of our research, we have personally interviewed several older citizens (from Canada and the U.S.) who remember the Pogue test and widespread publicity…. some were eyewitnesses.

“100 Miles On One Gallon Of Gas? Chicago Members Say It’s Possible” The Machinist, October 8, 1953 page 7.

This I.A.M. Lodge 48 member-inventor says 100 to 400 miles per gallon of gasoline is indeed possible.

The Ogle Carburetor

Argosy Magazine had a five-page article about Tom Ogle and the media witnessed test of the “Oglemobile”. On that test run, Tom Ogle achieved more than 100 MPG in a 4,600 pound 1970 Ford Galaxie. Tom Ogle was granted patent # 4,177,779 on Dec. 11th, 1979 “It all started with a lawn mower”

“Based on talks with actual engineers that work at Ford and GM, these two companies have actively discouraged any improvements in fuel efficiencies. Engineers would be threatened if they were caught tinkering with the computer systems or searching for ways to make the car engines run more efficiently.”

So many inventions.

So many inventors.

So many reports in national magazines. October 1913 Country life, page 104, Alternate carburetion. June 1916 Scientific American, page 584, Dual carburetor system

also see Nov. 17, 1917. December 7, 1919 Outgoing, pages 176-177, Why carburetors change. August 5, 1920 Auto Industries, page 273, Carburetor with swirling motion. June 1920 Scientific American Monthly, page 6,

“99 More miles per gallon of gasoline.” October 28, 1923 Literary Digest, page 24, Suggestions to Uncle Henry. July 1924 Popular Mechanics, pages 14-16, 50 miles per gallon of gas ? March 1926 The Scientific American Digest, page 185:

Doubling the Automobile Mileage Per Gallon 1926 Lockwood and Son, R.W.A Brewer- – London, page 176,

Economics Of Carburetting and Manifolding. October 5, 1929 Collier’s pages, 10-11, 300 miles to the gallon ! April 1935 Scientific American, page 206, Doubling gas mileage. December 1936 Mass Transportation, page 406,

Exceptional Mileage Claimed For New Carburetor Dec. 25, 1937 Business Week, pages 20-21, Carburetor monopoly. March 5, 1938 Business Week, page 39, New carburetor to use low cost fuel. January 19, 1940 Engineering, page 60-61, Coal-gas carburetors for cars. April 1940 Automobile Engine, pages 113-115 November 1942 Roads and Streets, page 55,

Carburetor service on kerosene and distillate engines. Sept. 13, 1948 Newsweek, page 66, An addition to the carburetor boosts mileage. November 1950 Reader’s Digest, pages 77-79, Test proven carburetor-less design. January 1952 Popular Science, page 116,

This American car will get 35 miles per gallon. October 8, 1953 The Machinist, page 7, 100 Miles On One Gallon Of Gas?

Chicago Members Say It’s Possible August 4, 1960 Machine Design, page 10, Carburetor switch stretches mileage. August 22, 1960 Product Engineering, pages 18-19, Twin carburetor saves fuel. January 1968 Mechanix Illustrated, pages 62-63, Expect to see this carburetor on Detroit cars in less than 3 years. October 1969 Mechanix Illustrated, page 77, Small General Motors car goes 70 miles per gallon of gas . . . not for sale. July 1974 Mechanix Illustrated, pages 46-47, 60 – 100 miles per gallon carburetor. July 1974 Mechanix Illustrated, Page 46,

The Search For A No-Waste Carburetor” by Bruce Wennerstrom

see below September 1974 Car and Driver, pages 68-72, “You gotta Believe” December 1974 Car and Driver, pages 31-33+,

When is a carburetor not a carburetor ? June 20, 1977 The Spotlight, Washington D.C Newspaper, 160 miles to the gallon. August 1977 Argosy, pages 23-25+, “Over 100 Miles On A Gallon Of Gas”

by Gregory Jones

Fish Carburetors

and Fireball Roberts

not “super”, just an improvement, but attacked

Production line of Fish carburetors in Daytona Beach, Florida about the time the U.S. Post Office was returning all Fish carburetor orders to the senders with “fraudulent” stamped on their order. The Post Office claimed there were no carburetors actually being produced.

Fish carburetors were not “super” carbs., but they were enough of an improvement that they were attacked, suppressed, and the business driven out of the country!

From 1947 to 1959 the Fish Carburetor Company of Daytona Beach, Florida manufactured over 125,000 high-mileage carburetors. The Fish carburetor averaged 20 percent better gas mileage and 30% more horsepower.

The Fish Carburetor was originally invented by John Robert Fish in America in the early Thirties. The carb works on pressure differential – not air speed, which means that it is almost instantly self adjusting & self compensating so any change in weather or altitude requires no adjustments or modifications as with conventional carbs. Hence all round suitability for cars, boats, aircraft, mountain or pressure charging use. Instead of the usual one main fuel discharge point within the carburetor, the “Fish” has from SIX to TEN leading to superior atomization and therefore improved vaporization and since wet fuel DOES NOT burn (only the vapor), better and more complete combustion is ensured enabling more power to be extracted from the same amount of fuel. The “Fish” was seen as a very serious threat to the “Original Equipment” establishment and could not be tolerated. J.R. suffered years of dirty tricks and persecution in an attempt to put him and his carburetor out of business. He even had his mail stopped on trumped up charges which were entirely UNTRUE and the case never went to court. It was simply a deliberate time wasting exercise to stop his cash flow and ruin him. He was not to be beaten and moved to Florida where he kept going by selling carbs to individuals including some wealthy big game fishermen. At about that same time an up-and-coming local Stock Car driver got involved. The famous and almost legendary “Fireball Roberts” who drove the original M-1 car and Fish carburetor in place of the big 4 barrel “Works” carbs. that everyone else was using. He literally left them standing with his otherwise out-of-date car. The “Works” organizations did not like it one bit and again the “dirty tricks” started. “Fireball Roberts” frequently made Pole Position and gained the trophy. Repeatedly, however, his race tires developed “mysterious problems” when leading the race convincingly. These “faults” suspiciously did not seem to occur in the “Works” cars. After this, they were only sold by a company in Canada which sold them in Canada and Europe.

The Brown Carburetor Company of Draper, Utah manufactured almost 10,000 new Fish-design carburetors from 1981 to 1996.

More Newspaper and Magazine Reports which

have been written over the past 50 years.

A. “Doubling the Automobile Mileage Per Gallon,”

The Scientific American Digest, March 1926, page 185.

gasoline fires are very dangerous

and difficult to put out

This report describes the Bursley-Trask Fuel Adjuster . A centrifugal carburetor that partially gasifies the fuel droplets and make for marked efficiency. Their findings show an

“average of seven runs without the adjuster- – -19.2 miles per gallon…”

“average of five runs with the adjuster – – -34.2 miles per gallon.”

An added benefit of this invention was a decreased in carbon buildup and decreased pollution !

Any large city public library should have this magazine available for inspection.

D. “The Search For A No-Waste Carburetor”

by Bruce Wennerstrom Mechanix Illustrated , July 1974, Page 46.

This report covers the account of an Indiana inventor whose carburetor is reported to get 60 miles per gallon of gasoline…. some say the figure is closer to 100 MPG. The M.I. reported witnessed the test conducted on a 17 year old Ford Station Wagon. The concept of this carburetion system is to accomplish a “complete vaporization of fuel”.

E. “Over 100 Mile On A Gallon Of Gas” by Gregory Jones, Argosy August 1977, pages 23 – 25 +

This magazine was not available in the public library. However, one can obtain a copy of this report by writing:

Popular Publications, Inc. 420 Lexington Ave. New York, New York 10017

Already this reported invention has received attention from several newspapers, magazines and radio/ television reports. Also the invention has drawn phone calls and personal; visits form the automobile industry, oil company representatives, Patent Office examiners and from the Federal Energy Research and Development Administration.

The Energy Research and Development Administration officials who viewed this invention gave a guarded evaluation, but was certain of one thing… and that is this was not a hoax.

What are the claims ?

With this invention, the eight cylinder engine will get 90 – 120 miles per gallon of gasoline. A six cylinder engine will average 140 – 200 miles per gallon , and a four cylinder engine will average 260 – 360 miles per gallon of gasoline !

All those involved in the Interstate highway test runs found no gimmicks.

The raw gasoline is first heated, then introduced into the engine in a warm gaseous form. Sophisticated absorptive surfaces, lines and tanks are required. Yet the invention can be easily adapted to the conventional car. The tests described in recent news reports where on a 1970 Ford with a V-8 engine.

One engineer from a nearby University was quoted to say, “I don’t know why somebody didn’t try this before. He’s eliminated the carburetor and achieved what the gasoline internal combustion engine was supposed to do all along – – – to operate off fumes. … He’s found a way to make it work.”

Only by reading the full context and looking at the photographs and charts can one really grasp the full significance and worth of such claims.

Personal Testimony We include only the first name of these individuals to protect their privacy. A. One Saturday morning we interviewed a purchasing agent employed at a local hospital. He said he drove from Los Angeles to Chicago and back in a 1964 Chevrolet with a V-8 engine. He estimated the average freeway speed was 70 miles per hour(in the 1960’s). The test car would constantly get 85 miles per gallon of gasoline. This was not a factory carburetor. It was a special-built system, invented by Mr. Michael ______. B. One spring day we interviewed the owner of a service station in a small western Kansas town. He has been in the gas station business for over 40 years in the same location. One steady customer bought a 1949 Ford that consistently averaged over 80 miles per gallon of gasoline. The station owner saw this carburetor many times….. he does not doubt its existence. C. Mr. D___ owns a tire and alignment garage. He personally knows of a man and his carburetor invention. The inventor was a friend and customer for years in this Oklahoma town. His car averaged 60 miles per gallon of gasoline.

We interview inventors: D. Mr.S. told us about his invention. On a Mercury V-8 engine he attached his device and regularly attained 38 miles per gallon. He did not patent the invention. This man worked for a Ford dealership. Knowledge of his carburetor was widespread in this small western city. In this particular case, a Ford representative made a special trip to study the carburetor. He made drawings and diagrams. Mr. S. doesn’t know what the motor company has done with the idea. E. Another Mr. S. (a retired mechanic) has a special device he has invented. Also, he modifies the stock carburetor. He has used this principle for years and on several vehciles. His present car is a 1973 Ford LTD with a V – 8 engine. His mileage is double the figure obtained by the factory carburetor. F. As previously mentioned, we interviewed those involved with a very recent invention in which the V- 8 Ford test car gets over 100 miles per gallon of gasoline. Their test results were witnessed by many. Engineers and mechanics attest to the feasibility of this system.

PATENTS

There are quite a number of patents for such inventions on file in the U.S. Patent Office available for all who want to do a patent search.

We must conclude that with so many patents, tests and eye-witness accounts there must be more than just a grain of truth to the cover-ups and facts involved.

RESISTANCE

We know that what is written at this point draws great resistance from those engineers and mechanics who believed it requires a prescribed air/as mixture ratio to obtain a specific amount of power… and no more. In other words there is a limit as to how far one gallon of gasoline will propel a car (let’s say a large size V-8 auto). Usually this "limit" is the miles per gallon figured advertised by the auto manufacturer. A common mileage rating for a big car is "14 miles per highway".

One questioning engineer, upon learning about our research, wanted to study our Pogue patents. After a few days study his opinion has been changed. His conclusion now was “it certainly appears possible to greatly improve gas mileage with this different concept of carburetion”.

Can one gallon of gasoline propel a car 100 miles ?

How much power is there in one gallon of gasoline ?

“Were all the energy of one gallon of gasoline to be harnessed for the performance of a single purpose, experiments show that it could be made to provide sufficient heat to raise the temperature of 15,000 gallons of water one degree. Put to work, it could furnish enough force to lift 50,000 tons of coal one foot off the ground raise the Woolworth building five and a half inches. Applied to a small car, the power is great enough to elevated a light car 450 miles in

the air or to propel it at twenty miles an hour for 450 miles over a level road”. Popular Mechanics, July 1924, page 14.

A General Motors executive said this:

“There’s enough power in one gallon of gasoline, if you could utilize it all for mere car push, not taking into consideration engine friction and so forth, to drive a small car on a level paved road, at twenty miles an hour, from Chicago to Detroit, That’s about three hundred miles.” Collier’s October 5, 1929. page 10.

Here’s another way to look at the same concept.

“Only 10% of the heat of the gasoline was being converted into push for the car.” Science Digest , November 1942, page 6.

This of course means that 90% of the “heat energy” stored in a gallon of gasoline is wasted when it is pumped into the conventional automobile engine.

And:

“Today’s auto engine wastes 75% to 80% of the gasoline energy…” Science News Letter, October 2, 1948, page 221.

Or:

“The fuel, of course, goes along in suspension.” “… Raw, indigestible fuel slobbers into the cylinders — into some more than others.” “… Slobbering engines are fuel hogs.”

Popular Science, December 1957, page 79.

What about the cars of the 1970’s?

“At its best conventional automobile engine is an inefficient device. In terms of converting the energy content of gasoline into mechanical power, even a top-notch V-8 may throw away three horses out of every four.”

CONCLUSION

We must use the reasonable-man approach to this subject.

There is ample written documentation, even from the auto manufactures, that such inventions do in fact exist ….inventions that can greatly improve gasoline mileage …even to what we might consider the phenomenal.

“THE ELUSIVE HIGH MILEAGE CARBURETOR” By Larry D. Wagner, published by Valley Press, 1984, out of Puyallup Washington 98371. It is probably one of the best of all the books as to understanding catalytic cracking. He made an extensive study and accumulated similar evidence in his research. He claims his complex system got 85 M.P.G. in his 455 c.i. Buick and states most systems on other cars are obtaining an average 250% increase.

He was hassled badly by the E.P.A. who drove him into bankruptcy by their testings with additive laced fuels that always failed the tests.

He gives the histories of different units and relates that while giving a lecture he mentioned that a tank mechanic had told him about W W 2 use of the Pogue system and was interrupted by a ex-tank driver who confirmed the story. Later, at another lecture, another military driver claimed 50 M.P.G. using a secret box carburetor. He states also about Detroit production test super carbs that would slip out to the market. He states his fears of suppression and his hopes for the survival of this technology.