Published: May 14, 2008 05:57 pm            

From fantasy comes grant solutions

Some time ago someone read one of my columns about Ohio inventor Stanley Meyer’s phenomenal success at breaking down water into its component gases to run his car, and asked me if I knew anything about a company called World Innovative Technologies and a device they are selling that is guaranteed to increase your gas mileage by at least 50 percent.

At the time I’d never heard of them or their Hydro Assist Fuel Cell or another product called a Pre-Ignition Catalytic Converter. Recently, however, I have uncovered quite a bit of information about the company’s founder, a guy by the name of Dennis Lee. Mr. Lee, it seems, has quite a reputation for offering products that seem to defy known science and are just too good to be true.

World Innovative Technologies is just one of many companies Lee owns or is a part of. One of his earlier firms capitalized on the electrical science of Milkla Tesla, and offered home generators that would in effect give us all free electricity. For awhile, Lee was offering certificates entitling the holders to obtain one of these remarkable generators at no cost. Later promotions offered them for prices between $275 and $1,000.

I actually got one of those certificates through a business associate who attended a seminar put on by Mr. Lee. He claimed to have taken a tour of the factory and saw shelves filled with the generators ready for shipment. That was several years ago and I am still waiting for my generator. Nor have I heard anything more about the operation.

The fuel cell and catalytic converter are marketed by another company called Dutchman Enterprises. Google the name for their Web site and watch their video presentation.

The fuel cell they say uses electrolysis to break down water into hydrogen and oxygen and then mixes it with your regular gasoline fuel to increase fuel economy as much as 100-fold. The catalytic converter supposedly reconfigures gasoline into a more efficient mixture before it goes into the engine.

In the video Lee tosses off a long line of scientific jargon to explain how his products work. I don’t know enough about physics, chemistry or engineering to have a clue about the veracity of his claims, but some other guys do and they say it’s pretty much hogwash. One of them is Eric Krieg who is part of an organization that investigates the claims of people like Dennis Lee. On his Web site www.phact.org, he concludes that virtually all of Lee’s product claims are scams

The Attorneys General of several states have forbidden Lee from selling within their borders. The state of Washington called him a “snake oil salesman.”

This is not to debunk what has been proven about breaking water down into its component gases for fuel. Stanley Meyer patented his remarkable process and to prove its worth, drove his water-powered dune buggy all the way from California to New York, inviting the press to ride with him. Unfortunately, Mr. Meyer died of mysterious circumstance shortly thereafter, and his discoveries pretty much went to the grave with him. He has a brother who had worked with him and who lives in Minnesota, but he is keeping a low profile.

There are a lot of other valid discoveries out there. An engineer in Cuba has been driving his 1956 Pontiac on water for years, and recently a New Zealand inventor by the name of Steve Ryan spent five minutes on “60 Minutes” demonstrating a motorcycle that runs on water and some “secret ingredient.”

In addition, I recently commented on the development of a new capacitor-type battery that will run an electric car at highway speeds for 300 miles and which takes only 15 minutes to recharge. This is proven science and is already at some level of production. There are also electric cars manufactured in California that can go for more than 100 miles on a four-hour charge. Though unbelievably pricey (more than $100,000), the manufacturer can’t build them fast enough..

Even though it is historically true that in times of great need the charlatans will come pouring out of the woodwork, so too will the creators of genuine solutions. With gasoline approaching four dollars a gallon, I have to believe that this will happen soon.



Ward Degler is a Zionsville writer and artist. E-mail him at wdegler@att.net.

        

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