I got into (and quickly out of)a discussion this weekend about the Pogue carburetor. That it would give a V8 250 mpg, was suppressed by big oil and Detroit. Tom, Ray, doe either of you know the truth? Internet searches give conflicting reports.
Anyone with common sense knows the truth, with no Internet searches needed.
Then you can add a Turbonator to bring it up to 300/
And acetone will get you 350.
Once you read of “conspiracies between the oil companies and Detroit”, your BS detector should be tuned to a high level. This old chestnut is no more true today than when it first originated…perhaps 40 or 50 years ago.
If it were true, would not some company in some part of the world in the last 40 years have come up with something the same, or better? ‘Detroit’ has no power over the rest of the world, right?
Pure nonsense.
I remember this myth from back in the 60s and 70s. I’m sure it goes back well beyond then.
It’s a fairytale… pure and simple.
It’s bunk. If someone were to come up with any kind of device that would improve fuel mileage by say 5 MPG the world would beat a path to their door.
There would simply be no way that Big Oil and government agents could keep this tamped down.
I think that I vaguely remember reading about the Pogue carburetor surfacing back in the 1930s and if there were even one iota of truth to it then it would have been a done deal back in the 40s.
Tom and Ray said that some stories aren’t true. I had a Volkswagen engine that went 1,000 miles without using ANY fuel. It was in the back of my pickup which used all the fuel.
the magnets and water injection will net atleast 500
You can easily get 250 mpg in a car. You just need a downhill that’s long enough. Or install some pedals.
Anyway, the thing that always bothers me about these things when they come up is the implication that there’s no such thing as technology suppression, and that markets are somehow these great things that make sure we all get the best of the best of the best of all possibilities. The problem is that neither position is correct. There are not crazy things like 250mpg carbs, but nor is it the case that every possibility has been explored and every potentially beneficial things has been developed to its greatest extent. The movement of technology in history is a very complicated thing not amenable to simplistic conspiracy theories or simplistic “markets do the best things possible” theories.
I have seen this one turn into a fistfight with one side making claims from aliens to conspiracy. Some people really get upset when you refuse to buy into this, and similar proposals.Hey do you guys want to buy a WWII HD? they are all packed in cosmoline but should clean up real nice. If you figure your back can’t handle the pounding I have another deal for WWII Jeeps.
You guys want to see how far this story has progressed? Read the link. But be careful…you may just laugh so hard you’ll fall off your chairs and hurt yourself.
Oldschool
Thank you for reminding me about that old “WWII Harley packed in Cosmoline” rumor.
I think that I am a few years (maybe many years) older than you, and I first heard it when I was a college freshman, back in '65 (That is 1965, not 1865!).
Of course, I informed the guy who told me about it that I wanted one of those $100 Harleys, as it would have been perfect for my commute to campus. Obviously, the “connection” to this wonderful deal quickly disappeared once several of us wanted to sign up for those greasy old Harleys.
I wonder how long this scam/rumor/urban myth has been going on.
It certainly predates the internet by decades.
Maybe it was originally a WWI Harley packed in Cosmoline!
Actually, there is some truth to the WWII military issue Harleys in the crates but most of those were sold off as surplus after WWII and into the early 50s.
The honest to God story though is that these things were stacked in someone’s barn/storeroom/warehouse/backyard/wherever and could be had on the cheap of course.
Many of those old military HDs that surfaced are actually a consolidation of NOS and used parts (including complete engines), ,maintenance depot rebuilt bikes, or well thrashed Lend Lease bikes that have surfaced and been redone.
Regarding the maint. depot bikes, these were known to have even been painted with a mop and 5 gallon can of OD green. Looks were not high priority given the war situation.
A gentleman from CO who is now deceased used to have a number of these assembled from surplus parts military HD 45s. I’ve purchased a number of parts from him and still have the original WWII packaging those parts came in. Some are a bit grungy from old Cosmoline but it’s all part of history, sticky or not.
Ouch! I fell off my chair laughing and hurt myself.
What a hoot!
I love a good conspiracy.
Thanks, Mountainbike.
Not a fairytale. A stock scam in the 1920s. He showed his wonder carburetor (which was a standard one machined to look new) and how it got gas mileage, but nobody knew about the hidden gas tank that also fed it. They bought his worthless stock, and then he absconded with the money, after telling the tale that an oil company bought it.
It’s not new. There were people demanding that this wonder carburetor be released to the public in the 1930s. I found an article about it in a 1930s issue of Popular Science.
The truth is that if GM could market a Suburban that got 250mpg it would do it in a heartbeat and run every other car company out of business.
That’s one of the biggest myths of the markets b/c it assumes that a) there are genuine markets and b) all of those actors out there are independent of each other and tied to no interests but their own.
But please don’t construe that as me saying that someone is hiding the magic carburetor. That’s not my point.