I received a couple of emails about a fellow with an air
powered car which I'd not heard of before. The idea of
converting ANY piston driven car to run from compressed air
is highly intriguing and particularly appropriate these days
(really since the 1960's) even though we still have to
recharge the compressor.
I believe this model claims to recharge as it runs so please
check out the following emails and the patents I found about
him.
If you have additional information, please post to this
thread (without quoting ALL of the prior responses) so that
it can be archived and read by many, thanks!...here are the
emails (I won't mention the guys name because I'm not sure
if he wants it broadcast, so here is the information);
I stumbled across your exchange with Ted Gallop about the
air powered car in use in France. (referring to Negre)
Some of the reports sound very optimistic. You might be
interested, though, to know that a tinkerer in Indiana has
developed a compressed air car that runs at 35 mph for 20
miles on a tank filled to 40psi, and that he has recently
received a patent for technology that feeds compressed air
back into the storage tank, so 90 percent of the energy is
preserved.
He claims that if it his car could be refined, it could run
for great distances on a single, relatively small
high-pressure air tank.
His original car, by the way, built in 1971, has patents
granted in 1974 and 1976, and still runs. But boy is it an
ugly car.
----------------
I asked him for more information and this is what he sent in
the 2nd email;
Regarding the air-powered car in Indiana.
The car was designed by a guy named Bob Manor (219-335-2881)
in Salamonia, Indiana.
His first car was built in 1971. It attracted a little
attention from engineers at Ball State University, but has
done little since.
He received patents in 1974 and 1976 on the concept. I saw
the patents and looked them over but I don't understand
patents. I believe they are expired now.
He also received a patent in 1999 that takes compressed air,
runs in through a cylinder that creates power in both back
and forth strokes and then recycles the compressed air (90
percent anyway) back into the tank.
This whole thing is jury-rigged as can be, but, given the
fact he has the patent, I have to accept that the machine
does what he says it does.
It does sound perpetual motion machinish to me, and I've
already gotten one email (I am a newspaper columnist and
wrote about this guy) from an engineer who condemned me for
giving time to the concept and perpetuating a myth.
But, I understand Isaac Newton once proclaimed that a clock
would never be used to determine longtitude because it was
impossible.
And I can imagine the reaction if a guy approached a
horse-and-buggy world with today's attitudes and said he had
invented a machine that, when fed one gallon of liquid,
could propel a 2,500-pound car with two passengers for 30
miles at 45 mph, and that the liquid would even help
generate light so you could travel in the dark, and run a
heater in the winter and an air conditioner in the summer to
keep passengers comfy.
Anyway, this guy approached GM and Ford, who told him they
would look at it if he would sign off, giving the companies
anything they saw. He declined.
Right now he is looking for a financial backer or someone to
license the rights to.
He estimates to build a custom engineered car would cost
$500,000. He has hinted at his willingness to license out
his technology for $100,000, but that was just conversation.
Background on the guy. He is 75 and seems relatively healthy
but is suffering from macular degeneration and is now
legally blind. He has been a stone cutter all his life and
got the idea for the car in 1968. He has investigated all
the technical information he can find, but says there isn't
that much.
Anyway, the column I wrote on the guy is at
http://www.jg.net/jg
----------
Here was my response with the patents;
The following two patents below are Manor, the other two are
other airmotor engines;
1999 patent;
http://www.patents.ibm.com/details?pn=US05957234__
1976
http://www.patents.ibm.com/details?pn=US03980152__
1984
http://www.patents.ibm.com/details?pn=US04478304__
1982
http://www.patents.ibm.com/details?pn=US04355508__
Thanks for the additional information...I'll pass along any
other info that pops up...BTW, I couldn't find your article
on that Journal page...do you have the exact URL?? I even
did a search but found mostly obituaries..<g>..thanks!
-- KeelyNet - From an Art to a Science Jerry W. Decker - http://www.keelynet.com/discussion archives http://www.escribe.com/science/keelynet/KeelyNet - PO BOX 870716 - Mesquite, TX 75187 - 214.324.8741------------------------------------------------------------- To leave this list, email <listserver@keelynet.com> with the body text: leave Interact list archives and on line subscription forms are at http://keelynet.com/interact/ -------------------------------------------------------------