what happened to stanley meyers who figured out how to run his car on water
It was the 21st of March 1998, when American Inventor Stanley Meyers sat down to lunch at a Cracker Barrel diner in rural Ohio. He ordered cranberry juice and the soup of the day. X minutes after, he would be dead, his last words an allegation of murder.
Meyers was a prolific inventor, and by all accounts a rather eccentric i. Betwixt 1960 and his untimely expiry in the carpark of an unassuming diner he applied for nearly 200,000 patents. Electronic banking, oceanography, heart monitors – Meyers had no formal qualifications every bit a scientist, but somehow saw opportunities to introduce in fields as erratic and unexpected as his personality. He was a religious man who swore that God sent him the ideas; he was known to exclaim "Praise God and laissez passer the ammunition" at seemingly random intervals. By 1989 he had been granted and then many patents that the US patent part decided to put him on a fast-rail program, reducing the scrutiny on his applications to relieve role resources. This, if you believe the conspiracy theories, may have been ane of the factors that atomic number 82 to his expiry.
On 21st March 1998, Stanley Meyers was dining for business rather than pleasure. He was meeting ii Belgian investors in the hope of raising uppercase for his latest invention: the water-powered motorcar.
This one was to be his crowning achievement: a vehicle fuelled non past polluting hydrocarbons, but by skillful erstwhile H20 – the most plentiful substance on earth. It could supposedly cross the United States on just 75 litres of distilled water, emitting only oxygen as waste. It would revolutionise transport and transform industry. It would change the earth, and create astronomical wealth. Meyers said he had a working prototype, a dune buggy painted in a spectacular shade of retina-harm orange; emblazoned with a gaudy American Flag and the words "Jesus Christ is Lord".
Co-ordinate to witnesses, the meeting passed cordially and uneventfully. Information technology ended with a toast – the Belgians raising their champagne glasses, and Meyers his cranberry juice. He took a sip; convulsed, grasping at his neck; burst from his seat and ran from the restaurant into the carpark where he collapsed. As he lay on the tarmac, he gasped to the startled onlookers who surrounded him: "they poisoned me". And then he died.
So who killed Stanley Meyers, and with him the water-powered car?
"Big Oil" companies with trillions of dollars at stake? Or perhaps General Motors, the largest auto manufacturer in the globe back in 1998. Or could it have been the mysterious Belgian investors, realising the monumental significance of what Meyers had discovered and seeking to merits it every bit their own?
The most accurate answer to this riddle is probably Rudolf Clausius, or you could also point the finger at William Thomson. But to actually put a twist in the tail of this whodunnit, this dastardly duo arguably killed the h2o-powered motorcar effectually 150 years before it was even invented.
Clausius and Thomson jointly discovered the laws of thermodynamics, which, until proven otherwise, expressly prohibit Meyer's invention from always working. Meyer'south water-powered car was a physical impossibility. H2o, as we know, does non burn particularly well. Meyers invention purported to work by freeing the hydrogen molecule in H2O its accompanying oxygen molecules, allowing the highly flammable hydrogen to exist burnt as a fuel source. This process (known as electrolysis) is real and very well-documented, but unfortunately, information technology takes the same amount of energy to interruption the bond as is released when it's formed. In other words – releasing energy from water volition always consume more than free energy than it produces. That'southward the first and 2d police of thermodynamics in activity.
The Truth is Out There
Then how did Meyers really dice? Many conspiracy theorists however believe it was an bump-off. He was said to have fatigued mysterious visitors from effectually the globe; attracted lucrative buyout offers from shadowy offshore companies and even allegedly been the bailiwick of country-sponsored espionage. Some fifty-fifty theorise that a such a globe-changing technology would take upturned the fragile, post-cold-war geopolitical power balance; ending America's dependence on rough oil and with it the strategic importance of Russian oil fields and the Middle Eastward. Even Meyer'south blood brother suspected foul play: he met with the two investors the next day to tell them Stanley didn't make information technology; "I told them that Stan had died, and they never said a discussion," he recalled. "admittedly nothing, no condolences, no questions, not a word. I never, ever had a trust of those two men ever again."
Grove Metropolis Police Department drew a rather more than prosaic conclusion at the cease of their iii-month research. Natural causes; a brain aneurism to be precise. "In that location were all sorts of secret stories", said Grove City Police force Lieutenant Steve Robinette, the lead detective on the case. "It was laced with all sorts of intrigue and conspiracy. But nosotros checked everything, and we found goose egg." Stanley Meyers, who had a history of loftier claret pressure level, had died of a cerebral aneurism. The toxicology study came dorsum spotless. He had not ingested whatsoever poison known to American medical science on the twenty-four hours he died – not even alcohol. A verdict of death by natural causes was recorded by the coroner, and consequently, no charges were ever filed.
Who exercise you believe?
In the years following Meyer'due south expiry, the water-powered car and its boggling claims were the subject of smashing scientific and legal scrutiny. Meyers had succeeded in attracting other venture capitalists earlier the fateful day in the Cracker Barrel diner, and his investors fought over the rights to his estate and the underlying intellectual belongings. Meyers had also succeeded in selling franchise rights for two water-powered auto dealerships to would-be entrepreneurs. To institute its value, the invention was examined by three "adept witnesses" appointed past the court; they concluded that in that location was "nothing revolutionary almost information technology, and it was merely using conventional electrolysis". The courts found that Meyer had committed "gross and egregious fraud" and ordered that the investors exist repaid $25,000. There were allegations that the whole sorry story was a cover for a sophisticated money-laundering scheme. Meyer's proper name was dragged through the mud, his reputation tarnished and his invention largely forgotten. The patents take expired, putting the technology in the public domain and available for utilise past anyone without restriction or royalty payment. Equally at the time of writing, no engine or vehicle manufacturer has incorporated Meyer's work .
The stop of the story?
And then is that information technology? Well, in a sense, Meyer's work does live on – we do have cars that burn down hydrogen, and you lot can brand that hydrogen from water in much the manner than Meyer described. The most useful class is chosen HHO, and in that location's mounting scientific bear witness that adding it to conventional fuels could greatly increase their efficiency. You lot tin can fifty-fifty fire it directly in a motorcar and the only by-product is – you guessed information technology – more h2o.
There's no denying that the free energy output is less than the input – the laws of thermodynamics remain unbroken – just there are applications where information technology even so might brand sense. Take, for example, wind farms. On exceptionally breezy days, wind farms can produce such an abundance of power that some turbines take to be shut downwardly to prevent overgeneration and harm to the grid. Instead of reducing generation, we could dump that excess power into splitting h2o into HHO every bit a ways of storing the energy for later. A "h2o battery", if you volition. Peradventure Meyer's invention wasn't so crazy after all?
The promise of abundant, make clean free energy still attracts a lot of interest, and inventors and entrepreneurs keep to ponder the possibilities. A patent for a water-fuelled engine was approved equally recently equally 2007, and patents must past definition be "novel, useful and non-obvious"; then apparently somebody pushing pens in the US Patent Office believed it had potential. We might still exist a long way away from filling our tanks from the tap, but if Meyer's offbeat inventions inspire simply a handful of people to look at h2o in a new fashion then he's alright in our books.
If you're looking to tinker with h2o engineering science at home, mayhap you'd be best to commencement with half dozen DIY Tips to Have You Plumbing Like a Pro in No Time, and so you can revolutionise the global energy generation marketplace later a spot of luncheon. Merely call up carefully before you order any cranberry juice.
Related Posts
This website uses cookies to ensure you lot get the all-time experience on our website. Learn more Got it!
Source: https://www.hero-labs.com/stories/who-killed-the-water-powered-car/
0 Response to "what happened to stanley meyers who figured out how to run his car on water"
Post a Comment