Re: Manor - Air Powered Car
JOHN HIMELFARB ( himel@airmail.net )
Fri, 31 Mar 2000 12:29:58 -0600
Jerry W. Decker wrote:
>
> Hi Folks!
>
> 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/
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