After three successful trials of the water driven car this week...
Hey... I'm still reeling under the enormity of it all
Today, 17 August 2005, started as per normal with a cheery hello to Chris where we have the BNE (Byron New Energy) Lab here in Byron. I was doing my chores when I had a feeling to ring Joe, which I did. We had a great talk and at the end of it my BNE buddy Ian wandered into the kitchen. We made a cup of tea and I recounted some of the things that had been happening (Ian gets the emails, so he already knew) and then we wandered into the lab so Ian could see the cell.
I've engineered it so it's real easy to disconnect from the car and reconnect of course. It's actually a pretty cruddy cell, PVC plastic 5 minute epoxy'd onto the cut off neck of a large glass jar! But hey! Peter had given me confidence when he said 'Just try it Sol!'. No dew water here, that had dripped off the pristine tips of ancient hoary oaks of the deep fairy forests. Just plain down to earth Ozzie PVC tank water collected out of Chris' kitchen tap that had been collected off of Chris' workshop roof including bird droppings, frog whatever etc. etc!
The previous night, I had been giving some thought to the misfires and instability of the cell on the previous day and as I'd experimented with sodium hydroxide as an electrolyte (pretty powerful stuff and really chews into stuff especially aluminium, hey by the way that's another way of making hydrogen. Drop a piece of aluminium into a solution of sodium hydroxide) I considered it carefully and decided to put just a teeny weeny little bit of sodium hydroxide into the cell to see what would happen. You see sodium hydroxide increases the electrolytic processes in water enormously, and as I haven't got a clue how this cell is working and being an experimental Cosmic water mechanic I thought I'd just try it.
Caustic soda is very easy to come by and dirt cheap. I had purchased some at the local hardware store. Zoooo. I took a leeetle bit (physically it is in small white granules far less than a millimeter in diameter) a soup song as they say in France, maybe about 200 minute granules and wacked in in the cell well, actually slowly spooned it into the cell while connected to my 12 computer power supply on the lab bench. Wow! Talk about action. The current running through the cell went up from 130 milliamps to about 2 amps (still only 2 x 12 = 24 watts which is chicken feed for a car battery and a computer power supply if it comes to that). Then I had to think carefully, since this stuff is as they say in the classics 'not good for engines', however, since my beautiful little Daihatsu Charade al la 1983 vintage had cost me $100 to buy ($840 all up when registered and insured for a year) I thought, what the heck! All in the name of science.
I considered carefully what would happen to her precious little valves and seats and pistons etc. and decided it was worth a try a) because the water (electrolyte) doesn't actually seem to get sucked from the cell into the engine there's something else happening an energy, or charge or whatever so I thought it could be OK for the next day's tests, and b) well, what the heck!. All three previous successful tests had been on pure Mullum tank water! (not sure is 'pure' is the correct word here!) I let the cell bubble on the computer power supply for a few minutes (apparently to charge it) and then went to bed. By the way, while I was waiting discovered more about Walter Russell on the web due to my excellent friend Peter look him (Walter Russell that is) up on Google fantastic stuff
Anyways as they say in the US of A, we decided to give the cell a test. Ian had never seen it before. He carried it reverently out of the workshop (actually, come to think of it, Ian's not really the 'reverend' sort of type, more sort of surfy dude I'd say) and I showed him how to connect it into the car. We didn't put power on the cell (ie. left it disconnected from the car battery) and drove out of the lab property on normal fuel. After closing the gate, I showed Ian how to switch off the normal fuel which we did and off we went to Mullum (with me holding my breath, since she'd not worked that well in the later part of yesterday).
Well she started off down the main road to Mullum, missed a few times, backfired a few times but would you believe!!! kept going. Ian sat there in stunned silence 'Hey man! It's working' I said happily You're running on water! There was this absolute look of total disbelief on Ian's face I was real happy because Ian is the first person I've had in the car with the cell working We beetled into Mullum(bimby) the motor was going much better now apparently the cell 'acclimatizes' itself to the engine and the car and another thing apparently it goes better with the timing advanced (Peter said even 20 degrees!). I haven't fiddled with the timing yet, not knowing much about cars and engines myself. So the timing was 'as is' with normal fuel.
We purred through the main streets of Mullum to the Post Office where Ian had some businesses and parked normally with the engine idling perfectly. Ian just could get over it he just sat there in a daze. By the way, the temperature of the motor was as per normal.
'Shall I switch it off and try and start it?' I asked. Ian nodded vaguely.
I switched it off and then started her again Rrrrrummm. She started first time as per usual. Wow! Remember there was no electrical power going to the cell during all of this. I've got a switch and plug so I can isolate the cell. We wandered into the Post Office and Ian did his business. When we got back to the car I said to Ian 'Do you mind if we go over to see the guy's at Farmcare there a bloke who works in stainless steel there I want to connect with'. 'No worries' was Ian's reply so off went (running on water, by the way!)
We went in the back entrance and stopped in the workshop area. Anthony was there working on some vehicle or other and I called to him 'Hey! Anthony, she's still running on water'. The boys came over and looked at the engine idling and we all had a great chin wag while she kept idling beautifully. I revved her up for them, they all examined the fuel tap (in the off position) and we all marveled. Hmmmmm. How can this be.. or as they say in the classics, 'How is it so?'
The bloke who owns the stainless business wasn't there so his mechanic had a look as well. We then took the car over to Malcolm's Tool Shop for Malcolm to see the car, but he wasn't there so we left a message and started off home (about 4 kms to McAuleys drive where the BNE labs are.)
The car went beautifully. When we got into the 100 kph zone outside Mullum, as we got up to 80 kph I said to Ian, 'I've not taken her over 80 kph yet, so I tried accelerating but felt a slight drag on the motor, so felt it may be the timing and decelerated back to 80 kph. I've never actually got the car up the hill on McAuleys Lane on water before, but today she purred up the hill.
'Geeez! I'd love to show Chris this' I said to Ian, still sitting there in a daze. We got to the gate and she still kept running. Hey! This is something new! The gate was open so we drove straight in. Chris was there doing business with a courier and got a bit upset with us as he thought I was going to run over his 5 dogs (which I wasn't). We parked the car and opened the bonnet with the motor still running. Now, you've got to know Chris. Chris is as dour as it comes let me tell you. They don't make em more dour than Chris. From Nottingham you know says he's a plumber lived in the district for yonks. Now Chris does not believe a word I've been saying, (and I don't blame him) but he does allow me to continue experimenting which I really appreciate (thanks Chris), 'Hey Chris, it's running on water right now, come over and have a look!'. Chris wandered over more interested in his parcel than anything else.
'Look Chris, see it works!' Chris peered into the engine compartment, looked at the cell, and followed my finger to the switched off normal fuel switch' 'That switch is leaking' he said with a cunning smile on his face. 'OK we'll pull the pipe off', I said. Which with a bit of a struggle we did. She kept purring on as if nothing had happened. I don't know what was going through Chris' mind. 'I wonder if you can disconnect the pipe from the cell to the motor', Ian said. 'Let's try it!', I responded and Chris pulled the pipe apart.
Now wait for it. You're ready? OK.
THE MOTOR KEPT GOING
She ran for quite a time and then stopped I decided to switch power onto the cell (in case it had discharged) and she started again. I think by now I was getting just a bit too excited. She ran for a while then stopped again. I could feel my energy getting confused and exhausted by now, but I wanted to keep going. 'Let's drive to Mullum with the fuel totally disconnected'.
We reconnected the plastic pipe between the cell and the engine, and Ian jumped in the car and we reversed up and out of the gate with the normal fuel totally physically disconnected. We heard Chris' car start up so we waited for him to come out of the gate and Ian closed the gate for Chris and off we went. As we started out for Mullum Ian said 'We're being followed by a disbeliever'. As the words came out of his mouth, the engine failed.
'Hey man!' I said, 'Say that it's OK, say that you believe the car will work' I said urgently. Ian looked at me with a pained expression on his face as though he been found with his hand in the cookie (actually that should be kooky) jar. 'It'll go' Ian said rather lamely but I'm afraid dear friends, that was the end of that. We pulled over and checked the spark (OK), re-connected the normal fuel, had trouble restarting her because the the mechanical fuel pump was dry and any fuel there may have been there was vapourised (or that's what I think), so I put a wet cloth on the mechanical fuel pump and cooled her down until she started. By this time we were quite exhausted so we decided to just go home on normal fuel and call it a day for the moment. Wow! Love and peace, Sol, BNE Coordinator