Reprinted in part from an article in "ELECTRONICS WORLD + WIRELESS
WORLD" January 1991:
Eye-witness accounts suggest that US inventor Stanley Meyer has
developed an electric cell which will split ordinary tap water into
hydrogen and oxygen with far less energy than that required by a
normal electrolytic cell.
In a demonstration made before Professor Michael Laughton, Dean of
Engineering at Queen Mary College, London, Admiral Sir Anthony
Griffin, a former controller of the British Navy, and Dr Keith
Hindley, a UK research chemist. Meyer's cell, developed at the
inventor's home in Grove City, Ohio, produced far more
hydrogen/oxygen mixture than could have been expected by simple
electrolysis.
Where normal water electrolysis requires the passage of current
measured in amps, Meyer's cell achieves the same effect in
milliamps. Furthermore ordinary tap water requires the addition of
an electrolyte such as sulphuric acid to aid current conduction;
Meyer's cell functions at greatest efficiency with pure water.
According to the witnesses, the most startling aspect of the Meyer
cell was that it remained cold, even after hours of gas production.
Meyer's experiments, which he seems to be able to perform to order,
have earned him a series of US patents granted under Section 101.
The granting of a patent under this section is dependent on a
successful demonstration of the invention to a Patent Review Board.
Meyer's cell seems to have many of the attributes of an electrolytic
cell except that it functions at high voltage, low current rather
than the other way around. Construction is unremarkable. The
electrodes - referred to as "excitors" by Meyer- are made from
parallel plates of stainless steel formed in either flat or
concentric topography. Gas production seems to vary as the inverse
of the distance between them; the patents suggest a spacing of 1.5mm
produces satisfactory results.
The real differences occur in the power supply to the cell. Meyer
uses an external inductance which appears to resonate with the
capacitance of the cell - pure water apparently possesses a
dielectric constant of about 5 - to produce a parallel resonant
circuit. This is excited by a high power pulse generator which,
together with the cell capacitance and a rectifier diode, forms a
charge pump circuit. High frequency pulses build a rising staircase
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DC potential across the electrodes of the cell until a point is
reached where the water breaks down and a momentary high current
flows. A current measuring circuit in the supply detects this
breakdown and removes the pulse drive for a few cycles allowing the
water to "recover '.
Research chemist Keith Hindley offers this description of a Meyer
cell demonstration: "After a day of presentations, the Griffin
committee witnessed a number of important demonstration of the WFC
(water fuel cell as named by the inventor).
A witness team of independent UK scientifc observers testified that
US inventor, Stanley Meyer, successfully decomposed ordinary tap
water into constituent elements through a combination of high,
pulsed voltage using an average current measured only in miliamps.
Reported gas evolution was enough to sustain a hydrogen / oxygen
flame which instantly melted steel.
In contrast with normal high current electrolysis, the witnesses
report the lack of any heating within the cell. Meyer declines to
release details which would allow scientists to duplicate and
evaluate his "waterfuel cell". However, he has supplied enough
detail to the US Patents Office to persuade them that he can
substantiate his 'power-from-water' claims.
One demonstration cell was fitted with two parallel plate
"excitors". Using tap water to fill the cell, the plates generated
gas at very low current levels- no greater than a tenth of an amp on
the ammeter, and claimed to be milliamps by Meyer - and this gas
production increased steadily as the plates were moved closer
together and decreased as they were separated. The DC voltage
appeared to be pulsed at tens of thousands of volts.
A second cell carried nine stainless steel double tube cell units
and generated much more gas. A sequence of photographs was taken
showing gas production at milliamp levels. When the voltage was
turned up to its peak value, the gas then poured off at a very
impressive level.
"We did notice that the water at the top of the cell slowly became
discolored with a pale cream and dark brown precipitate, almost
certainly the effects of the chlorine in the heavily chlorinated tap
water on the stainless steel tubes used as "excitors".
He was demonstrating hydrogen gas production at milliamp and
kilovolt levels.
"The most remarkable observation is that the WFC and all its metal
pipework remained quite cold to the touch, even after more than
twenty minutes of operation. The splitting mechanism clearly evolves
little heat in sharp contrast to electrolysis where the electrolyte
warms up quickly."
"The results appear to suggest efficient and controllable gas
production that responds rapidly to demand and yet is safe in
operation. We clearly saw how increasing and decreasing the voltage
is used to control gas production. We saw how gas generation ceased
and then began again instantly as the voltage driving circuit was
switched off and then on again."
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"After hours of discussion between ourselves, we concluded that
Steve Meyer did appear to have discovered an entirely new method for
splitting water which showed few of the characteristics of classical
electrolysis. Confirmation that his devices actually do work come
from his collection of granted US patents on various parts of the
WFC system. Since they were granted under Section 101 by the US
Patent Office, the hardware involved in the patents has been
examined experimentally by US Patent Office experts and their
seconded experts and all the claims have been established."
"The basic WFC was subjected to three years of testing. This raises
the granted patents to the level of independent, critical,
scientific and engineering confirmation that the devices actually
perform as claimed."
The practical demonstration of the Meyer cell appears substantially
more convincing than the para-scientific jargon which has been used
to explain it. The inventor himself talks about a distortion and
polarization of the water molecule resulting in the H:OH bonding
tearing itself apart under the electrostatic potential gradient, of
a resonance within the molecule which amplifies the effect.
Apart from the copious hydrogen/oxygen gas evolution and the minimal
temperature rise within the cell, witnesses also report that water
within the cell disappears rapidly, presumably into its component
parts and as an aerosol from the myriad of tiny bubbles breaking the
surface of the cell.
Meyer claims to have run a converted VW on hydrogen/oxygen mixture
for the last four years using a chain of six cylindrical cells. He
also claims that photon stimulation of the reactor space by optical
fibre piped laser light increases gas production.
The inventor is a protegee' of the Advanced Energy Institute.
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Meyer Patents: (up to Sep, 1991)
4936961 - Method for the production of a fuel gas (get this)
4826581 - Controlled.. production of thermal energy from gases
4798661 - Gas generator voltage control circuit (get this)
4613304 - Gas electrical hydrogen generator (get this)
There are others of his, which do not typically apply to his
"generator":
4613779 - Power isolation device
4465455 - Startup and shutdown for a hydrogen burner
4421474 - Hydrogen gas burner
4389981 - Hydrogen gas injector
4275950 - Light Lens
4265224 - Solar storage system
3970070 - Solar heating system
There are several ways to obtain these patents, but the easiest one
gets them sent directly to your door.
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