The Elusive High Mileage Carburetor

Chapter 2

A Little History

As it appears to me, at the turn of the century, with the introduction of the petroleum burning internal combustion engine, a few speculators with insight acquired a position that with time would give them nearly the power of God. If they could have foreseen that within twenty years, nearly the entire country would become almost entirely dependent on their product: gasoline. They would have been insane to pass up the opportunity to gain a position of control.

In the Untied States Constitution, it is stated that monopolies shall not exist in this country. As long as the oil producing companies were competing for sales of their fuel, prices could remain reasonable and the service of the selling agency would be an important factor in whether their product was sold.

It is not difficult to see that this has changed. Up to the early seventies, you could drive into a gas station, have your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and fill up for around four to six dollars. You would probably receive a free gift, green stamps, a decal, or some sort of advertisement for the station. Do you remember the independent gas station? "Joe's Service Station and Restaurant." Chances are, you could get the best buy in town there. Especially if "Earl's" across the street was trying to undersell Joe.

If I was one of the largest gasoline producers, I could wee that as long as all of these independents existed, there would be no possibility of organizing the gasoline producers and getting a unanimous effort to boost the price of fuel. As long as these little "jerks" existed, gas prices would remain competitive. Not just the independent stations, but also their suppliers!

Now there is one simple bit of logic that has existed since the beginning of man. This is, whoever has the most power gets what he wants. In this country, money is power.

People can be bought. You see this on a local scale quite often. Quite often a community depends on a large factory for its existence. You can be sure any decisions made by the mayor or city council will not be adverse to the factories' will. Right here in my home town, the sheriff was arrested for being an underworld leader. He was responsible for protecting prostitution and gambling, and was even charged with murder. We recently saw Watergate and the arrest of certain congressman for accepting bribes from FBI men disguised as Arab sheiks. It is only logical to assume that the oil companies have more than a natural amount of clout in Washington, DC

It appears to me that in order for the major oil companies to be able to stage what we feel was a false energy shortage, there had to be inside help.

This supposed oil shortage caused most independent oil suppliers and gas stations to disappear. It was the government, from what I understand, that decided to allot oil to the largest consumers, or largest suppliers of gasoline, and the smaller guys were just out of luck. It all sounded logical and most of them gave up without a struggle. The end result: after the smoke cleared, the small guys were gone and the price of gasoline was nearly double, all in one swift move.

Where were the powers sitting after this? Several independent gasoline producers joined and merged into one, Exxon. That frightened many people. The appearance of a single, all powerful monopoly in the United States had been formed. Where did all of the small guys go? only the few strongest and largest remained. Now there was this small group that controlled everything. It they were to have organized and unanimously come to decision on issues such as how much to raise the price of oil and what tactics to use, no one would be capable of interfering.

Have you noticed that the production of any possible alternate fuel has staggered or has been acquired by the oil companies?

Finally, where has the concept of gasoline vaporization fit into the story? The earliest patent that I have seen for a gasoline vaporizer was dated as early as 1889.

The concept and the knowledge of it's benefits are not new. Again, in the beginning of our independence on fossil fuels at the turn of the century, especially when the oil business was so competitive, it would have been disastrous for a device to be introduced that would create such a sizable increase in gas mileage. Gas was sold for so little that to increase gas mileage by eight to ten times would have broken the industry.

There was very little public understanding of the internal combustion engine at the time so it seemed to be quite a majestic creation. People could seldom understand it's theory, much less doubt it or improve it. The innovations that could have brought us this increase in mileage were generally confined to the auto manufacturers. At the time, I would assume that their attitude was to let well enough alone. Why introduce this when the oil companies were charging so little for fuel in the first place. They could see that s sizable increase in mileage would wipe this industry out. What they probably did not realize was that they are protecting a hairless pup that would soon grow into a strong and merciless wolf who would soon have them at their command. Not a large majority of the public is aware that the controlling interests in both the oil and automotive industries in this country are now held in New York by the same financial organizations, or holding companies. Now they are one and the same and there is no chance of one hurting the other. Talk about a monopoly!

In earlier days, once in a great while, someone out of the population would produce a gasoline vaporizer. Most, according to reports, were bought for as little as $12,000. There are also the reports of inventors suddenly disappearing without a trace of their invention to be found. One of these inventors that surfaced in the late 1920's and early 1930's was an individual that many of you have heard of before. Charles Nelson Pogue, who emerged from Canada, got up to 200 miles to the gallon from a V(c)8 engine. The world was delighted. I still don't know how he got that far without meeting with some type of oppression. Once he surfaced and became an international hero, they could not do much to stop him. His disappearance would cause rage. It was already suspected by the public that his device would not be very welcome by the oil industries. Pogue was, according to history, quite successful in his testing. What happened to Pogue in the following years is quite cloudy. No one seems to positively know what did happen during this period of his life.

Based on reports that we have gathered from people who claim to have been witnesses to different happenings, we pieced together the following story.

At the beginning of the Second World War, it was rumored that the United States Army acquired Pogue for a period of six months. During the war, in the North African desert, our American tanks had to travel great distances while burning tremendous amounts of fuel. This, as I understand, caused severe problems. Fuel was already very scarce. What I heard happened next came from the mouth of a tank mechanic. I was told that as soon as the tanks were delivered to their assigned post or command, they were secretly taken aside and altered. The carburetors were encased in a box. After the installation of this "box", the tanks reportedly attained a tremendously higher range on the same amount of fuel.

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