http://www.rexresearch.com/ogle/1ogle.htm#nohoaxThe Tribune (June 8, 1978) "Mileage Astounds Experts" By Ron Laytner
El Paso, Texas --- Is a young high school dropout the most important American inventor since Thomas Edison?
Will he and the world energy shortage and show us how to drive from New York to Los Angeles on $15 worth of gasoline? Or is it all a hoax to get inventors' money and infuriate the oil companies?
El Paso has been excited ever since 25-year-old Tom Ogle, a simply-educated, home-town auto mechanic, astounded engineers by converting his car's engine so it appears to drive 100 miles on a gallon of gasoline.
Ogle did away with the carburetor and fuel pump, replacing them with a secret black box he calls a filter. The super mileage, he said, was due to his pressurized, vaporized fuel system that injects fumes directly into the engine's firing chambers.
Engineers have tried but found no evidence of fraud. On April 30 last year Ogle drove a 1970 Ford Galaxy 200 miles from El Paso to Deming, NM, on a measured two gallons of gasoline. The auto was inspected for hidden fuel tanks but none were found.
Ogle and his car were under observation at all times yet the "Oglemobile" went the distance without stopping for fuel and averaged 100 miles per gallon at 55 mph. Doublers became believers. Scientists were amazed. Many were convinced Ogle's claim is legitimate.
Tom Ogle believes his new company, Ogle Fuel Systems, will soon become one of America's largest corporations because the world must have his invention. He plans to have a miniaturized version installed in test cars by the end of July, and expects to have it on the market within a year, selling for about $300 a unit, installed.
If he can survive criticism by giant auto and oil interests he could become one of the worlds richest men. And he will,according to millionaire C.F. Ramsey, an international financier from Longview,WA, who has backed Ogle with "unlimited funds" for world-wide marketing rights.
Ogle was easier to meet with a few months ago but with success he's become reclusive, a junior Howard Hughes hiding from the press.
Then, he was set up in the back of garages owned by friends. Now, he is incommunicado, headquartered in El Paso's most prestigious building and travelling in chauffeur-driven limousines and corporate jets.
Before he went underground, Ogle told me, "We've had inquiries from Ford, Chevron, Shell, Volkswagen and Chrysler and calls from the biggest retailers in the world wanting marketing rights." But company spokesman denied contact.
Ogle said he refused one man,"Said he was the chief engineer for Shell oil and asked what I'd do if I got an offer of $25 million to sell out." Shell denies it.
But a spokesman for investor Ramsey, said many giant corporations had been in El Paso trying to buy up control of Ogle's invention.
The inventor said he discovered his fuel system by accident, "I was messing around with a gasoline lawn mower when I accidentally knocked a fuel in its fuel tank. I put a vacuum line running from the tanks straight into the carburetor inlet."The lawn mower kept running.
"I just let it run and it kept running but the fuel stayed the same. I got excited. The lawn mower engine was running without a carburetor and getting tremendous efficiency."The engine got hot so Ogle used an electric fan to cool it and was amazed when it ran 96 hours on the fuel remaining in the mower's small tank.
He went from the lawn mower to the automobile engine, converting a car in the same manner, its engine started immediately but the gas tank collapsed inward. Many months and reinforced gas tanks later, he solved the vacuum problem.
But, the car without its carburetor and fuel pump, had no acceleration. It couldn't run faster than 20 mph. And the modified engine averaged only eight miles to the gallon and stalled after 10 miles.
One day Ogle crawled under the stalled car to examine its gas tank and got a surprise;"It was freezing cold, like an ice-cube.As I was sucking vapors out, it was acting like a refrigerator with liquid on the bottom and fumes on top."
When he solved the stalling problem by warming the gas tank with heater coils, the miles pre gallon skyrocketed to over 100. Tom Ogle hasn't looked back since.
He believes his system is the answer to the world's pollution problems and has demonstrated virtually zero pollutant emissions coming from his engine exhaust at computerized auto engine test centers.
In a typical test, with the engine running and the speedometer over 55 mph, a jet of clean hot air, without the usual obnoxious smell, leaves the Oglemobile's exhaust pipe."You can dry your hair with it," said Tom Ogle.
After an hours high-speed run, water in the radiator is only luke warm. And a spark plug installed before the test comes out cleaner than it had gone in.
He isn't afraid of oil interests."My wife Monika is scared, afraid I'll get kidnapped. But I'm safe. People still can't believe or understand what I've discovered.
Ogle said he asked President Carter's assistance with developing his invention and had sent the president all the data and test results on his experimental model. At one point an official with the U.S. Energy Research and development Administration declared Ogle's vaporized fuel system contained no fakery.
"I think personally, and with strong conviction, that there is no hoax," said Richard W. Hern, fuel engineer systems supervisor at ERDA's research centers at Bartlesville, Okla. on May 6, 1977, after examining Ogle's invention until his patent and other legal matters were settled.
But later Hern said it was impossible to get such mileage as the invention promised. He couldn't say more, he declared, because he was bound by a statement of confidentiality he signed so that he could view the invention.
Ogle's noisiest critic has been Robert Levy, an El Paso physicist who insisted it was impossible to move a 5,000 pound car more than 50 miles with the energy contained in one gallon of gasoline. Levy had stated the Oglemobile was a fraud but lately, as Ogle's credibility grows, he has backed off, denying he ever called the system a hoax.
Mack Massey, an El Paso auto dealer, who claims he's an early Ogle backer, said a patent search made last year on Ogle's system turned up a similar General Motors patent approved in 1972. But GM spokesmen said the company had more than 500 patents granted that year and would need a patent number to find out which invention Massey spoke of.Ogle said he received a phone call from GM requesting permission to inspect the car. But Joe Karshner, a company spokesmen, said "We haven't approached Ogle. He has never made a submission to us and we've never gone to him.
"This is very controversial. We are interested in anything and everything that would improve a vehicle's performance. If Ogle's invention is legitimate we would be interested. He is free to come to us."
Highly qualified men praise Ogle's system: John Whitacre, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas, El Paso, said, "To me it looks like the only thing leaving the tank is air vapors, giving better combustion. It's a different approach working with gas already vaporized."
Another supporter is professor Gerald Hawkins of Texas A&M University, holder of a doctorate in mechanical engineering with a background in gas dynamics and aerospace study, member of the American Institute Of Aeronautics and Astronautics and The American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
There is no hoax eliminated the carburetor and achieved what the gasoline internal combustion engine was supposed to do all along-to operate off fumes. I don't know why somebody didn't try this before."
Another Texas inventor, Frank Read of Fort Worth, said he perfected a system to improve gas mileage and that fights with auto manufacturers almost broke him. He said he underwent 11 court battles with oil companies trying to buy of his unit with an agreement he never build another. He felt Ogle had a long, hard road ahead.
In Washington a spokesmen for U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D.Wis.) said, "It sounds to good to be true.But if the Ogle invention proves feasible, results would be awesome.
"America could become oil self-sufficient and the drain of oil dollars to the Middle East ended." said Jeffrey Neddleman, legislative assistant to the lawmakers who pioneered U.S. government fuel economy standards.
"The potential benefits are too great for it to be ignored. The senator is asking the Department of Transportation to make a thorough investigation of the Ogle system."
Ogle died soon after at a very young age. It was claimed he died of drugs and alcohol. All very questionable. Ogle's patient on this predated General Motors.