The Secret Super High Mileage Report

Chapter 5

Tom Ogle's articles

This section is reprints of newspaper and magazine articles on Tom Ogle. In1977, Tom demonstrated a 351 ci. Ford getting 100 miles per gallon. He used a multiple vapor system that had a 3 gallon tank. His patent was granted Dec. 11, 1979 number 4,177,779 three months after his death. It has never been developed. He did not understand that you must crack the fuel and how the additives affect the system long term. These articles are photocopied into my booklet. More are available. I have 27 and heard there was over 50 articles done about him and his system. Very interesting reading.

Ogle Fuel System - No Hoax
By Gregory Jones

Tom Ogle says it wasn't a hoax.

He insists there were no hidden fuel tanks or other alternate fuel sources used to power a two-ton automobile for 205 miles Saturday on only two gallons of gasoline fumes.

Ogle isn't alone in his no-hoax statements.

Carl Wright, for example, has been working on internal combustion machines for 35 years. He is a certified teacher of auto mechanics and is currently shop foreman at Peck's Automotive Service, where Ogle built his controversial energy-saving fuel system.

"It's no hoax." Wright said in straight-forward fashion. "There were no hidden tanks." Wright, who has no vested interests in the invention, said at first he was skeptical of the young man's invention.

"I've watched the thing from the time they built the fuel tank to the very present," Wright said"It looks to me like it'll do what Tom said it would do."

Wright said any secret fuel compartments would have required many extra man-hours by Ogle to install in the car body.

"He only worked on the car during office hours," Wright said,"and he didn't have a key to the door" to get into the automotive shop during off-hours or weekends. Experts Probe Ogle Fuel System

"He has not been here working on the car at nights, and the car has been locked up here every night." Wright said.

James Peck, who owns Peck's Automotive, has a 50-50 partnership on any royalties from the invention. And he said he would stake his 30 year professional reputation in northeast EI Paso on the fact that there was no hoax involved in Saturday's test drive.

"I personally believe he (Ogle) had some help some-where along the way developing the system, although he will not admit to that. But I can vouch that the system works. It's no hoax. It was my car hr converted. We built system in my shop. I'll put my name on the line. It definitely works.

Peck said he provided financial back for Ogle's invention after he and Ogle met about a month ago and discussed the system.

Frank Haynes Jr. is registered state engineer with degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and Southern Methodist University. He was at Peck's Automotive Saturday where he looked the system over and talked with Ogle.

"From what I saw, there was no hoax." Haynes said, adding that he learned of Ogle's invention in The Times.

" I decided to venture out and see what was going on," he said. " I'd never even heard of Tom Ogle before. But I'm familiar with combustion from previous work and wondered what the kid had come up with.

"What I saw was very convincing," Haynes said. Haynes said he felt the only chance of a hoax might have been in the amount of fuel that actually was in the tank.

Prior to the test drive Saturday, reporters and onlookers witnessed a mechanic at Peck's empty the special,pressurized gas tanks, and pour two gallons of fuel into the tank after it was empty.

Haynes said he was additional convinced of the system's authenticity by the fact it was difficult to start the car before heading to Deming.

" The car had to be primed quite thoroughly in order to run. That gave me the idea that there weren`t any fumes in the system after drainage.

"That was quite convincing for me personally. If there had been hidden fuel, there wouldn`t have been any difficulty in starting the car,according to how he (Ogle) described the system to me,"Haynes said.

Haynes described Ogle as an "open, earnest" young man "who convinced me everything he said should be true."

Ogle all along has maintained nothing but simple trust in his invention.

"It works,"he said frankly."There is no hoax."

He described his Saturday test drive,in which a times reporter participated as a "beautiful performance."

Ogle added with a chuckle that the return to El Paso from Deming was made with one pint and two ounces of fuel left in the fuel tank.

"We did pretty good though.We made 205 miles on less then two gallons," he added.

He said he maintained constant 55 to 60 mile per hour speeds.

200 Miles On Two Gallons Of Gas
"The El Paso Times" El Paso Texas, Sunday,May 1, 1977
By John Doussard

"Once I get to Deming and back I'll have everybody banging at my door!" Tom Ogle exclaimed. It was as uncommon sentiment that may very well prove to be true.

Saturday the 34-year-old inventor mechanic climbed behind the wheel of his 1979 Ford Galaxy and headed down the road toward both the dusty New Mexico town and possible fame, fortune and a solution to the energy crisis.

With only two gallons of gasoline in the tank, Ogle offered strong evidence that the tangle of red hoses and tubes racing between the back of the 5,000 pound car and the engine performed as billed: delivering over 100 miles to the gallon while averaging close to 60 miles per hour.

Indeed, in a day of automotive and personal triumph, the only sour note was sounded when Ogle failed to bring his gas-saver back into El Paso as planned. On the outskirts of town, just a few miles from his final goal, a rock struck the underside of the car,puncturing a filter and allowing the gas fumes the auto travels to escape.

But it really hardly mattered at that point. Ogle had traveled 205 miles on slightly less than two gallons of gas.Some of the precious liquid had been spilled when first poured in the tank.

"I use about four gallons of gas every two weeks," Ogle said. "But then I drive an awful lot."

Actually, Saturday's performance was rather modest. Ogle claims his system will average about 160 miles per gallon in city driving, treatment average of 12 miles per gallon.

"I fixed-up my car, a 1972 Thunderbird with a 429 cubic inch engine, with the system," Ogle said. "I then took it to Cloudcroft and back on two gallons, about 200 miles.

"And I still had enough to drive around when I got back in town."

The odd thing about Ogle's system is that doesn't add complex gadgets and intricate gimmicks. Instead, it removes the carburetor, a piece of the engine long considered sacred.

"Engineers said it wouldn't work because without a carburetor there's nothing to vaporize the fuel," Ogle explained during the trip across the hot dessert. "They couldn't understand that it's already working on vapors.

"Instead everybody kept trying to add something to the carburetor while nobody thought of taking the thing off."

Basically the system uses a standard engine with a few modifications In lieu of the carburetor there is a series of hoses feeding a mixture of gas vapors and air directly into the engine.

Gas in the tank passes through a series of filters, which stretch the energy available in each gallon. The ??? also store excess vapors for later use for up to 45 days. Premium gas is needed, as its higher octane level allows for more vapors to build.

Not only does Ogle's car promise more miles per gallon, but he says it will clean the environment while causing its owner fewer repair headaches.

"It will top anything on the road today, being smoother, better running and more efficient," Ogle said. "The life of your car will be two times longer because there will be no carbon build-up.

"The carbon comes from unburned gas, but we burn it all.You won't have need all the catalytic converters for the air."

Before the journey began, two Times reporters looked the car over for possible hidden sources of fuel, and found none. Then a brief ceremony emptying the gas tank, and after the last drop fell, two gallons were poured back in.

While only an expert could say for sure the trip was completed with only those two gallons, spectators, reporters and other interested inventors present all appeared satisfied.

"This is the hottest thing of this century," Frank Haynes, Jr. an independent engineer living in this area, said. "Engineers have been beating their heads against the wall to come up with something like this.

"I honestly don't think it's a hoax."

Success at 100 miles per gallon
By Ron Laytner

El Paso, Texas- is a young high school dropout the most important American inventor since Thomas Edison?

Will he and the world energy shortage and show us how to drive from New York to Los Angeles on$15 worth of gasoline? Or is it all a hoax to get inventors' money and infuriate the oil companies?

El Paso has been excited ever since 25-year-old Tom Ogle, a simply-educated, home-town auto mechanic; astounded engineers by converting his car's engine so it appears to drive 100 miles on a gallon of gasoline.

Ogle did away with the carburetor and fuel pump, replacing them with a secret black box he calls a filter. The super mileage, he said, was due to his pressurized, vaporized fuel system that injects fumes directly into the engine's firing chambers.

Engineers have tried but found no evidence of fraud. On April 30 last year Ogle drove a 1970 Ford Galaxy 200 miles from El Paso to Deming,N.M., on a measured two gallons of gasoline. The auto was inspected for hidden fuel tanks but none were found.

Ogle and his car were under observation at all times yet the "Oglemobile" went the distance without stopping for fuel and averaged 100 miles per gallon at 55 mph. Doublers became believers. Scientists were amazed. Many were convinced Ogle's claim is legitimate.

Tom Ogle believes his new company, Ogle Fuel Systems, will soon become one of America's largest corporations because the world must have his invention. He plans to have a miniaturized version installed in test cars by the end of Jul, and expects to have it on the market within a year, selling for about $300 a unit, installed.

If he can survive criticism by giant auto and oil interests he could become one of the worlds richest men. And he will,according to millionaire C.F. Ramsey, an international financier from Longview,Wash., who has backed Ogle with "unlimited funds" for world-wide marketing rights.

Ogle was easier to meet with a few months ago but with success he's become reclusive, a junior Howard Hughes hiding from the press.

Then, he was set up in the back of garages owned by friends. Now, he is incommunicado, headquartered in El Paso's most prestigious building and travelling in chauffeur-driven limousines and corporate jets.

Before he went underground, Ogle told me, "We've had inquiries from Ford, Chevron, Shell, Volkswagen and Chrysler and calls from the biggest retailers in the world wanting marketing rights." But company spokesman denied contact.

Ogle said he refused one man,"Said he was the chief engineer for Shell oil and asked what I'd do if I got an offer of $25 million to sell out." Shell denies it.

But a spokesman for investor Ramsey, said many giant corporations had been in El Paso trying to buy up control of Ogle's invention.

The inventor said he discovered his fuel system by accident, "I was messing around with a gasoline lawn mower when i accidentally knocked a fuel in its fuel tank. I put a vacuum line running from the tanks straight into the carburetor inlet."THe lawn mower kept running.

"I just let it run and it kept running but the fuel stayed the same.I got excited. The lawn mower engine was running without a carburetor and getting tremendous efficiency."The engine got hot so Ogle used an electric fan to cool it and was amazed when it ran 96 hours on the fuel remaining in the mowers's small tank.

He went from the lawn mower to the automobile engine, converting a car in the same manner, its engine started immediately but the gas tank collapsed inward. Many months and reinforced gas tanks later, he solved the vacuum problem.

But, the car without its carburetor and fuel pump, had no acceleration. It couldn't run faster than 20 mph. And the modified engine averaged only eight miles to the gallon and stalled after 10 miles.

One day Ogle crawled under the stalled car to examine its gas tank and got a surprise;"It was freezing cold, like an ice-cube.As I was sucking vapors out, it was acting like a refrigerator with liquid on the bottom and fumes on top."

When he solved the stalling problem by warming the gas tank with heater coils,the miles pre gallon skyrocketed to over 100. Tom Ogle hasn't looked back since.

He believes his system is the answer to the world's pollution problems and has demonstrated virtually zero pollutant emissions coming from his engine exhaust at computerized auto engine test centers.

In a typical test, with the engine running and the speedometer over 55 mph, a jet of clean hot air, without the usual obnoxious smell, leaves the Oglemobile's exhaust pipe."You can dry your hair with it," said Tom Ogle.

After an hours high-speed run, water in the radiator is only luke warm.And a spark plug installed before the test comes out cleaner than it had gone in.

He isn't afraid of oil interests."My wife Monika is scared, afraid I'll get kidnapped. But I'm safe. People still can't believe or understand what I've discovered.

Ogle said he asked President Carter's assistance with developing his invention and had sent the president all the data and test results on his experimental model. At one point an official with the U.S. Energy Research and development Administration declared Ogle's vaporized fuel system contained no fakery.

"I think personally, and with strong conviction, that there is no hoax," said Richard W. Hern, fuel engineer systems supervisor at ERDA's research centers at Bartlesville, Okla. on May 6, 1977, after examining Ogle's invention until his patent and other legal matters were settled.

But later Hern said it was impossible to get such mileage as the invention promised. He couldn't say more, he declared, because he was bound by a statement of confidentiality he signed so that he could view the invention.

Ogle's noisiest critic has been Robert Levy, an El Paso physicist who insisted it was impossible to move a 5,000 pound car more than 50 miles with the energy contained in one gallon of gasoline. Levy had stated the Oglemobile was a fraud but lately, as Ogle's credibility grows, he has backed off, denying he ever called the system a hoax.

Mack Massey, an El Paso auto dealer, who claims he's an early Ogle backer, said a patent search made last year on Ogle's system turned up a similar General Motors patent approved in 1972. But GM spokesmen said the company had more than 500 patents granted that year and would need a patent number to find out which invention Massey spoke of.Ogle said he received a phone call from GM requesting permission to inspect the car. But Joe Karshner, a company spokesmen, said "We haven't approached Ogle. He has never made a submission to us and we've never gone to him.

"This is very controversial. We are interested in anything and everything that would improve a vehicle's performance. If Ogle's invention is legitimate we would be interested. He is free to come to us."

Highly qualified men praise Ogle's system: John Whitacre, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas, El Paso, said, "To me it looks like the only thing leaving the tank is air vapors, giving better combustion. It's a different approach working with gas already vaporized."

Another supporter is professor Gerald Hawkins of Texas A&M University, holder of a doctorate in mechanical engineering with a background in gas dynamics and aerospace study, member of the American Institute Of Aeronautics and Astronautics and The American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

There is no hoax eliminated the carburetor and achieved what the gasoline internal combustion engine was supposed to do all along-to operate off fumes. I don't know why somebody didn't try this before."

Another Texas inventor, Frank Read of Fort Worth, Said he perfected a system to improve gas mileage and that fights with auto manufacturers almost broke him. He said he underwent 11 court battles with oil companies trying to buy of his unit with an agreement he never build another.He felt Ogle had a long, hard road ahead.

In Washington a spokesmen for U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D.Wis.) said, "It sounds to good to be true.But if the Ogle invention proves feasible, results would be awesome.

"America could become oil self-sufficient and the drain of oil dollars to the Middle East ended." said Jeffrey Neddleman, legislative assistant to the lawmakers who pioneered U.S. government fuel economy standards.

"The potential benefits are too great for it to be ignored. The senator is asking the Department of Transportation to make a thorough investigation of the Ogle system.' This article from RV Magazine

Over 100 miles on a gallon of gas
By Gregory Jones

A 24 year-old inventor in El Paso, Texas, has the government and the automobile people taking a close look at his astounding experiment that could revolutionizing the industry.

Two hundred miles on less then two gallons of gas?

That's the spectacular fuel economy Tom Ogle got when he test drove a beat up, 4,600 pound, 351 cubic inch, 1970 Ford Galaxy on April 30 1977, from El Paso, Texas, to Deming, New Mexico, and back.

It's that type of performance that Ogle believes will liberate the nation's army of automobiles and commercial carriers from the bondage of high costs for fuel. According to Ogle, his system will reduce to near zero the hydrocarbon and photochemical pollutants emitted by the gasoline internal combustion engine and eliminate the traditional engine and eliminate the traditional carburetor and fuel pump- resulting in fewer tune-ups and maintenance.

The 24-year-old inventor, who cared more as a youngster for tinkering around in automobile engines then playing sports, will have his system patented, perfected and into mass production within a year. In the meantime, to convince the doubters, he plans to equip three late model cars with his new fuel system (eight, six and four cylinder) and test prove them in the laboratory and on the road.He predicts the powerful eight cylinder engine will get 90 to 120 miles per gallon;the six cylinder medium-sized engine will average 140 to 200 miles per gallon; and the economy four-cylinder engine will steal the show at 260 to 360 miles to the gallon.

Unbelievable?

Well, one stumbling block, that leaves the critics searching for an answer is the monitor test run. It has been established no hoax was perpetrated, unless it was of such an elaborate nature that it escaped the scrutiny of numerous mechanics and engineers.

Ogle ran his test drive in West Texas and south central New Mexico, an arid environment that combines Yucca of the Chihuahuan Desert, Cotton Wood of the Rio Grande Valley, and the many types of pines that speckle the upper reaches of the Rocky Mountains foothills.

Before he would begin,the Ford was closely scrutinized for hidden fuel tank he designed for his fuel system was emptied of its contents, and a carefully measured two gallons of gas was poured back in. The fuel tank was checked for hidden compartments. None were found. It took ten to 15 minutes to get the car primed to start, proving all the more that there was no hidden fuel and that the system had been emptied. Ogle then drove the low-hanging car out of Peck's Automotive Service and Body Shop, located in northeast El Paso, and followed a police escort to the city limits. A caravan of curiosity seekers followed the vehicle to interstate 10, which goes north out of El Paso to Las Cruces, New Mexico. There the Ford test car turned west, and followed Interstate 10 to Deming.

The results?

Ogle summed it up."It was like one guy commented...that we actually had really done something when we got to Las Cruces (45 miles from El Paso)When he hit Las Cruces, we were already going better than a Datson, "Ogle quipped, then nodded with his head toward the big Ford Galaxie as if to say:"And in a car like that!"

Ogle maintained 55 to 60 mile per hour speeds, and had to climb one steep incline just west of Las Cruces in order to get up on the mesa which remains relatively flat for the next 60 miles to Deming.

The "Oglemobile," as the test car has come to be known,only stopped once in Deming, where Ogle, his assistant James Franklin, and a news paper reporter had a cup of coffee"while some of the other cars got gas." The test run was in completion when he was forced onto a shoulder along the highway and a rock flew up and punctured a "filter"in the fuel line,causing the vaporized power to escape to the atmosphere.The engine stalled and the car had to be towed back to "Peck's" garage."It was still a success. WE proved we could do it,"Ogle said later.

How exactly did he do it?

Ogle is understandably cautious about explaining in to much detail what is that makes his system work. There is still the all-important matter of getting a patent for his invention, and, until then , we'll have to make do with a nuts and bolts description.

First off, the vaporized fuel system is nothing new.It's been kicked around for 50 years or more. Ogle said he did something that other inventors and experimenters didn't try, how ever, and that was to eliminate the standard carburetor. During the explanations he gave to professional mechanical engineers, Ogle would proudly come forward, holding the defunct carburetor, smiling as broadly as a successful big game hunter. "Here's the carburetor," he'd say, while the engineers pondered the "black box" contraption that stood proudly in the carbonators place.

It's through this black box that the fumes are "filtered" a final time before being injected straight into the cylinders.Air is mixed with the fumes both at the fuel tank and the engine.A mechanical engineering professor from the University of Texas at El Paso suggested to Ogle that he call his "filters" something else. "You're not actually filtering anything," professor John Whitacre said. "Those `filters' are actually more like absorptive surfaces or absorptive panels."

Gerry Hawkins, a specialist in high performance engines, shook his head after viewing the Oglemobile. "It looks good," he said. "I don't know why somebody didn't try this before. He's eliminated the carburetor and achieved what the gasoline internal combustion engine was supposed to do all along-to operate off fumes. The idea is feasible,and it appears he's found a way to make it work." Hawkins holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University and currently is on the U.T.El Paso faculty.

"To me it looks like the only thing that leaves the tank is the fumes," claimed Whitacre. "That just gives you better combustion. I'm most impressed.It's a different approach, one that works with gas already vaporized.Why wasn't it developed before? Because everybody tried to make the carburetor work better instead."

Ogle,too, believes that his invention is something that "could have" been made to work before but wasn't.

"That's why this system is a breakthrough, and nobody can really understand what it is until the engineers have a chance to take it apart and see what's going on. If you base your arguments on conventional fuel systems, I could see why people would doubt this. Mine is a completely different system that work son energy taken out of the gasoline.The normal engine takes fuel out of the tank.With this system, you leave the gas in the tank and take the fumes from that gas out. The fumes are the explosive part of the gasoline. The problem is that everybody kept thinking the carburetor is indispensable to the cycle.It's not."

When asked about the safety of his system, particularly the fuel tank where gasoline is heated to generate more fumes, Ogle shrugged off the question with a strong statement that his fuel tank is safer than those installed on current models.

"My tank is so thick it couldn't explode,"he said, pulling back his early 1960's Beatles style hair cut. "I figured it all out on a computer. You only have about 240,000 to 250,000 pounds of pressure before the conventional fuel tank will explode. My tank, built of half-inch reinforced steel, could endure 360,000 pounds of pressure before blowing.With only three gallons of gas, which is the maximum any of my tanks will hold,you would only generate about 240,000 to 250,000 pounds of pressure."

In case of a backfire, Ogle said the fumes would be vented to the atmosphere via a safety valve installed in the aircraft hoses that connect the fuel tank to the engine."If we were going to have an explosion, I guess you might say that it should have happened when the car died on the way back from Deming.But the safety valve automatically went into action when the engine pressure dropped and vented the fumes outside the system."

Ogle worked on his system for the past five years-not an easy task. There were many times when he wanted to throw the wrench in.

"The only thing I knew I needed was the pistons to go up and down," he said gesturing with his hands in a vertical motion."And all you need for that is an explosion. I sat back and started thinking what it took to do that.The answer? The fumes."

Ogle credits his four years of training in Kung Fu with helping him to overcome many of the obstacles with developing his fuel system.Kung FU is more of a mental attitude," he said, "as compared to karate or judo which uses force.Kung Fu teaches you to look for the pressure points, but most important, to use mind control. It's a styling art. It taught me not to give up."

The German-born young man, who looks younger than his 24 years, got off to an unusual start with his fuel system.He was 19 years old and was tinkering around on a four-cycle lawn mower. He punched a hole in the top of the engine's fuel tank, removed the carburetor (more out of curiosity than anything else) and inserted a hose into the carburetor jet, connecting that the fuel tank.

"The lawn mower ran for 96 straight hours at idle speed," he said. "I put fans around it so it wouldn't burn up." From the lawn mower, Ogle advanced to the mighty automobile engine. The principle's the same, only the engine is more completed."

He tried his budding invention out on several cars, and progressed in stages, having satisfactorily overcome one hurdle only to encounter another.The first car a 1964 Oldsmobile was a failure.He got only eight miles to the gallon.But it was on this Oldsmobile that he first experimented with removing the carburetor. He learned then that combustion was more complete, and that he could extract more energy per pound of fuel without the carburetor.

"The Olds ran lousy. It had very little acceleration and, of course got terrible gas mileage. Most of the time the engine stalled. I knew I had to get further into the thing." He then designed a system for heating the fuel tank which solved the stalling problem.

It was back to the drawing board,however, because he still had a problem of low gasoline mileage to solve. That's when he came up with his "filtering" system, which he claims is the "real key to the system." After designing the filters he tested the system on his gray Ford Thunderbird, driving the car on the road and in laboratory simulation for more than 140,000 miles. The T-Bird got from 118 to 140 miles per gallon a matter that didn't go unnoticed by his wife, Monika. "We only had to fill up about once a month."she quipped adding that the car got plenty of driving in the city.

The patent Office examiners in Washington are currently reviewing the blueprints of his system, however, the question has been raised that a patent may have already been issued to a person or company for a system similar to Ogle's.The company that has come up more often has been General Motors, although a man named Frank Read, in Fort Worth Texas who said he had designed a carburetor adjuster that will triple gas mileage, discovered as many as 19 patents that might be "similar" to Ogle's during his own patent search in 1975-76.

"If that's the case," Ogle shrugged "why wasn't it on the market? Anyhow, I honestly doubt that anybody has a filter system like mine-or has ever thought of it."

The specialist in fuel system design, who went to mechanical trade school rather than college,"because I say to many people with there master's degrees looking around for jobs," said he would be very interested to know why the holder of a patent to a fuel-saving system such as his had not put the invention into production.

Since the completion of his invention, Ogle has received hundreds of phone calls. One , in particular, came from a Shell oil representative who asked him what he would do if somebody right now offered him $25 million for the system. Ogle's response. "I would not be interested."

"I've always wanted to be rich," Ogle said as a broad smile crossed his face, "and I suspect I will be when the system gets into distribution. But I'm not going to have my system bought up and put on the shelf. I'm going to see this thing through-that I promise."

Ogle has already encountered a situation that was a disappointment to him.He believes an official from the federal Energy Research and Development Administration, who had viewed the Ogle system and rode in the Ogle-mobile, "took a turn around" after he went to Washington D.C.

The official, R.W. Hurn, of the ERDA research lab at Bartletsville, Oklahoma, was cautious and reserved with his comments about the system. He said the system was "rudimentary" in construction and "obviously needs much refinement," but added, "that's not at all unusual with new engineering concepts." The one point Hurn commented on, without reservation, was that he did not think a hoax was involved. "That's the one thing I personally feel with strong conviction."

In a statement prepared by Hurn for U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, D-Texas, he reiterated some of the statements he had made in El Paso, where he talked with the press under the hot sun in the back of Peck's garage. He said, for example, that he had not seen verified experimented data to support the 100 mile-per-gallon claims of Ogle's, nor had he seen measurements appropriate and adequate to support Ogle's claims of engine pollution characteristics. However, the statement to Bensten contained the following:

"In my opinion, certain claims (as I understand them to have been made) may be faulty, but, as stated before, not necessarily deliberately misleading." Hurn said he also could not make a technical assessment of the fuel system's potential for further development.

"the whole sounds kind of fishy," Ogle said, after reading a tele-communicated copy of Hurn's statement. The government must be getting pressure from somebody. He said one thing to me when he was here, and then turned completely around after going to Washington. I mean, "we knew the system was impractical at this stage-but it is as far as I could bring it without engineering help. Hurn said that he thought things could be worked out. Well, I'll tell you one thing, if there is a real energy problem in this country, and they don't consider this system as an alternative to the problem, then there must not be much of an energy crisis.

"I realize that it's hard to break people away from the conventional designs.But if anybody doubts that my system doesn't work, after we've proven all the federal standards and regulations, then they shouldn't buy it."

The young man who opted for dropping out of high school, but returned later to obtain a graduate equivalency degree, who studied at the University of Morgantown Trade School in West Virginia, who specialized in fuel systems, welding, electronics and auto mechanics, has the determination to take on all corners.

"I decided a long time ago to achieve something, and feel now that I've achieved what I set out to do."

But the battle isn't over.