(word processor parameters LM=8, RM=75, TM=2, BM=2) Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501 Sponsored by Vangard Sciences PO BOX 1031 Mesquite, TX 75150 There are ABSOLUTELY NO RESTRICTIONS on duplicating, publishing or distributing the files on KeelyNet! August 12, 1991 LEACH2.ASC -------------------------------------------------------------------- This file shared with KeelyNet courtesy of Chris Lightener. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Inventor Planning Hydrogen-Powered Car By Robert Lindsey (Special to The York Times) Los Angeles, April 20 - Sam Leslie Leach, the inventor of a controversial process that he contends can economically separate the hydrogen and oxygen in water, says he has refined his design and begun building a system that will be capable of running an automobile on hydrogen derived from water. Mr. Leach's invention has been the subject of both mystery and controversy since he said in 1976 that he had devised an economically efficient means of splitting water, a contention that promised a cheap source of hydrogen as a replacement for fossil fuel. Mr. Leach, a multimillionaire professional inventor who has several basic patents in the field of optics, has been trying to interest the Federal Government and industry in his concept for more than three years, but has been largely ignored. For the most part, scientists have ridiculed the concept, arguing that it violated basic laws of physics. Any system of splitting water, they contend, has to consume more energy than it produces. Positive Evaluation Mr. Leach has refused to discuss the details of his system or how it purportedly works. but last spring an innovation research center at the University of Oregon financed by the National Science Foundation evaluated part of the technology over a period of two weeks and concluded that, that based on its analysis, it did not violate the laws of physics or thermodynamics. The center said that the process appeared to be technically sound and have commercial potential, but its report did not dampen skepticism in the scientific community. Page 1 Two critics of the system, Howard Riese and Donald Bunker, both professors at the University of California, argued, for example, that it was impossible for such a system to work as Mr. Leach contends because, in effect, it would be a "perpetual motion machine." The inventor denies such a characterization. In an interview, Mr. Leach said that he had declined to make public any details until he had protected his rights to the process. Last fall, he received a patent on some elements of the process. Last week a second was issued by the United States Patent Office. After its issuance he agreed to give some details of how the system purportedly works. How System Operates In its simplest terms, he said, the process utilizes a lazer-like device to generate ultraviolet radiation that photochemically splits steam into oxygen and hydrogen. It then utilizes the electrostatic forces that normally bind electrons and protons in water vapor (and which are released in the water- splitting action) to maintain the reaction. In 1922, Niels Bohr, the Danish theoretical physicist, first defined the electrostatic forces that bind electrons and protons as "extranuclear" energy. Mr. Leach's contention that he has found a way to use the energy in the way he describes is likely to evoke additional skepticism from other scientists. But he asserts that the process he utilizes to maintain the water-splitting action is identical with one observed by astronomers in energy interactions that occur in gaseous nebulae, the great masses of interstellar gas that absorb ultraviolet radiation from stars and re-emit it as visible light. The following is a more detailed account of how Mr. Leach says the system works: The reaction is started with an input of electrical energy from outside the system, from a battery or electric line. This energy is converted, by using an "optical pump" and other components, into large amounts of ultraviolet radiation of a specific wavelength that is precisely tailored to ionize hydrogen and oxygen molecules in the steam that has been fed into a tubular reaction chamber. The chamber is flooded with the radiation. During the ionization, electrons are momentarily liberated from their atoms and molecules. Ionization and Radiation Microseconds later they are recaptured and recombined with the proton or nucleus of the atom. At this point, the energy that was required to ionize it reappears and radiates away. This radiation then ionizes another molecule. Very soon a chain reaction begins that involves millions of molecules and atoms. The process's concept, Mr. Leach said, manipulates the Page 2 recombination of electrons and protons as hydrogen and oxygen instead of water vapor. Some of the hydrogen, he said, can be used to generate electricity to continue the initial input to the process and, in effect, be SELF-SUSTAINING AS LONG AS WATER IS PUMPED INTO THE SYSTEM. In 1975, before he publicized his work, the Presley companies, a southern California home builder, acquired an option on the process from Mr. Leach for use in home heating. The Securities and Exchange Commission investigated the company and alleged that it had issued false statements regarding its capabilities. Subsequently, Mr. Leach reacquired the option for the same price Presley paid for it. Mr. Leach asserted that he had demonstrated the validity of his theory in 11 experimental machines that split water into hydrogen and oxygen. He said that the machine now being built for use in an automobile was of a more sophisticated design and was intended to drive a 245-horsepower automobile. A spokesman for a company that is assembling the device under a contract with Mr. Leach said it was hoped the machine would be ready for testing in early summer. Scientists have tried for more than a century to separate water into its two components, oxygen and hydrogen. Electrolysis, nuclear reactors and other means have been employed to do so, but every method has consumed far more energy that the hydrogen that was produced. The availability of a cheap source of hydrogen would have immense implications for the world economy. Not only could hydrogen be used as a substitute for gasoline, but it would also be used as a replacement for home heating fuels and other energy sources. NYT April 21,1979 -------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have comments or other information relating to such topics as this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet or send to the Vangard Sciences address as listed on the first page. Thank you for your consideration, interest and support. Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet -------------------------------------------------------------------- If we can be of service, you may contact Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 3