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 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 1.5 mm 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 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 scientific 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 milliamps. 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 "water fuel cell".
However, he has supplied enough detail to the US Patent 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."
"After hours of discussion between ourselves, we concluded that Stan 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 fiber piped laser light
increases gas production.
The inventor is a protegee' of the Advanced Energy Institute.
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