News Release
This file was originally posted on the KeelyNet BBS on December 3, 1993 as
GARRETT1.ASC.
The Next Step in
Energy Production, Engines and Lighting
by Jerry W. Decker for KeelyNet
(with apologies to the Dallas Morning News, the Van Nostrand Scientific
Encylopedia and the US Patent Office)
For years we have heard stories about a demonstration of a car that ran on
water here in the Dallas area. Never was there any text substantiation or
other documents relating details. Many of our friends had also heard the
story with hints of a green pill or powder that was added to the water while
in the gas tank that somehow made it combustible with no further actions
taken beyond the simple ignition via a high intensity spark.
About three years ago, our friends Howard and Joanne Bond sent us a short
newspaper clipping describing the demonstration. The article indicates a
patent was secured for the "something" that made the car run on water. That
has kept me inspired all this time and made me keep an eye and ear out for
additional information.
The basic story as I heard it was that the inventor of the traffic light, Dad
Garrett, failed to get a patent on the idea. Every city adopted his traffic light
invention for which Dad Garrett received little in return. He and his son
Charles invented other devices, among them a means of making an
automobile engine run on water, but I never heard of a patent issued on this.
To promote the discovery, a public demonstration was held at White Rock
Lake in Dallas somewhere around 1934. The event was covered by news
media of the day and we understand there was a Pathe' or Movietone
newsreel. An automobile was towed to the lake site. We do not know the
type of automobile or whether it was a 6 or 8 cylinder engine. A gallon of
water was removed from the lake and put into the gas tank. The car was then
started and driven around the lake with no problems.
Several months back, I decided to do whatever it would take to dig up this
patent, if it existed. I knew from the article that a Dad Garrett and his son
Charles had invented this "something". I did not know the year of this alleged
patent and so had to go through several volumes looking for anything
relating to Garrett. Sometimes inventors assign their invention to companies
and that posed an additional problem if such was the case.
I finally did find a patent issued to Charles H. Garrett on July 2, 1935 and
called an ELECTROLYTIC CARBURETOR. The number was 2,006,676. Since
the micro files only go back to about the mid-40's, I had no option except to
order it from the patent office. A letter was sent to them with $2.00 ($1.50 for
the patent and .50 for mailing costs). After almost 3 months, I got a letter
saying that patents had now gone up to $3.00. So, another letter with the
extra $1.00 FINALLY got me the patent about 3 weeks later.
I have been calling it a HYDROLYTIC CARBURETOR because of WHAT it is
combusting and have been totally amazed at the simplicity of the
technology. Several of our associates have received advance copies of it
and are quite impressed, saying they will build and test it. We too will test it
and openly share our findings.
Please feel free to pass this file around.
The newspaper articles are included in this file for the exact information as
published from the 1935 demonstration to the latest modern report of which I
am aware.
Bob Aldrich of Survivor BBS in LA gave us additional patent numbers
pertaining to the Horvath patents for electrolysis to power an automobile
engine. Of those patents, the Garrett patent was NEVER listed as a "prior art"
patent. That is quite odd as it PRECEDES several of the points made by the
Horvath patent, not to mention being SO SIMPLE. Experiments will be
carried out on the Garrett design and we and our fellow experimenters will
share our findings for those interested. The potential is ENORMOUS.
What follows is the story confirming that no green pill was involved in the
process and which Howard and Joanne Bond sent to KeelyNet.
Dallas Morning News - 1992 - Long Format
Column : TEXAS SKETCHES
Headline : Early inventor builds water-powered auto
Date : September 6, 1992
Section : TEXAS & SOUTHWEST
Page : 48A
Edition : HOME FINAL
Author : A.C. Greene
Word Count : 398
Text :
The late Henry "Dad" Garrett was a multi-talented Dallas inventor with a bent
for electrical contrivances, and in 1935, he and his son, C.H. Garrett, patented
and exhibited an automobile that ran on water -- actually, on hydrogen after
the water was broken down by electrolysis.
Dad Garrett was already famous for his work. In 1920 he set up WRR in
Dallas, the world's first municipal radio station, and was its first announcer.
He was the first man to build a radio in his car, and he developed radio
transmission from the car for police use. He also invented an automatic
electric traffic signal, possibly the nation's first.
Eugene P. Aldredge recalled the Garretts: "I had rented a small office on the
seventh floor of the Allen building in downtown Dallas for my letter service,
and one of my early customers was the eighteenth floor National Electric
Signal Co. Owned by Dad Garrett and son C.H..
"I was informed that the two were experimenting with an automobile that
used water for fuel, that they carried on their experiments in a workshop
adjacent to their office on the top floor, and that two separate explosions
(from dangerous hydrogen) had nearly blown a hole in the roof of the
building...Neither was hurt."
On September 8, 1935, The Dallas Morning News first announced that the
water-fuel concept worked -- at least it worked for "several minutes," the
article reported.
A few months later, Pathe' News filmed the car driving along Garland Road
with the driver stopping at White Rock Lake to fill the fuel tank with water
before cruising off. In 1970, Karen Klinefelter wrote, "Aptly enough, the film
was shown on Pathe's Stranger than Fiction feature program."
C.H. Garrett said the only items needed to convert a gasoline-engine auto to
a water burner was an electrolytic carburetor and installation of a generator
of double normal capacity for the breaking down of the water.
He claimed instant starts in any weather, no fire hazards, cooler operation
and plenty of power and speed. The car was not marketed, and no one
seems to know its ultimate destiny. Both Garretts died a number of years
ago.
[A.C. Greene is an author and Texas historian who lives in Salado.]
The original September 8, 1935 article that I found on microfilm in the Dallas
Library.
Dallasite Patents Invention
Which He Claims Substitutes
Water for Gasoline as Fuel
C.H. Garrett, Dallas inventor, gave a private demonstration Saturday of a
recently patented contrivance which he said substituted water for gasoline
as fuel for internal combustion engines.
He said it broke up the water by electrolysis into its component gases,
oxygen and hydrogen, using the highly explosive hydrogen for fuel in the
motor cylinder.
The working model operated a four-cylinder engine for several minutes in
the demonstration, at varying speeds and with several starts and stops.
Garrett said he had operated the engine continuously for more than
forty-eight hours.
The inventor said the idea itself was not new. He explained that difficulty had
been encountered heretofore in attempts to store the dangerously
inflammable hydrogen. He claimed to have AVOIDED that trouble by making
and exploding the gas in the SAME PROCESS without a storage chamber in
which the flames from the motor cylinders might react.
Water, he explained, is broken down into its component gases by passage of
an electric current through it from electrodes immersed in the water.
Hydrogen collects at the negative pole and oxygen at the positive. The
hydrogen, Garrett said, is MIXED WITH AIR (78% nitrogen and other
gases...Vanguard) and introduced DIRECTLY INTO THE CYLINDERS.
The inventor said he had been working on the device for eight years,
assisted by his father, Henry Garrett, traffic signal engineer for the city of
Dallas, inventor of the traffic signal system, now in use here and holder of
several patents on such contrivances.
Garrett said attachment of the electrolytic carburetor and installation of a
generator of about DOUBLE normal capacity to furnish power for the
breaking down of the water were the only changes needed to convert a
gasoline burning automobile into a WATER BURNER!
He said the electrolysis chamber would have to VARY IN SIZE with the size
of the motor used. One of ABOUT A QUART CAPACITY being big enough for
the ordinary automobile.
He claimed instantaneous starting in any weather, elimination of fire
hazards, cooler motor operation and fulfilling of all motor requirements in
power and speed.