New info on the Richard Clem Engine
This past week, a new contact from the Roundtable meetings went out with some of us for dessert after the meeting. We discussed a wide range of topics and somehow Richard Clem was mentioned. This fellow said he actually KNEW Clem, had met him personally a couple of times and had some additional information about him which he would gladly contribute to the pool. Clem had a daughter and son, who our contact says meet often at a restaurant/bar in a suburb of Dallas. So we will be pursuing a contact with them, even though they were VERY spooked by the events leading up to and after their fathers death, which might make some bridge building necessary. When the FBI comes in and takes all your fathers papers and work, I think I'd be paranoid too. Our contact said Clem often drove the test car up and down Central Expressway in Dallas, back when there was NOTHING but open fields in the 70's. In seeking details or verifications of what we already had collected and which is listed in the file CLEM1, our contact said Clem worked for the city of Dallas and operated heavy equipment. This we knew, however, he said Clem used asphalt spraying equipment, which used melted asphalt that was pumped through the machine. Clem noticed THIS MACHINE would continue to run for up to an hour even after the power was turned off! The reason Clem never applied for a patent was because his design was basically the same as the asphalt sprayer and so he felt he could not infringe on an existing patent. That is the first key difference, it was a hot asphalt sprayer rather than a fire engine pump. The second key difference from our original information was that the axis of the cone was VERTICAL, with a horizontal spin plane. This had been suggested by many but we presented the information as it was given. Now, it makes even more sense because the gravity gradient would be slightly greater and amplified by the expanding centrifugal rotation. Clems' machine used Mazola cooking oil and ran at about +300 degrees Fahrenheit. He also used a heat exchanger to keep it cool. So we have a temperature differential plus the centrifugal thrust. We will post any additional information when it comes in, hopefully by next month.
