# Has a 200 mpg carburetor been suppressed by the oil industry? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [May 14, 2012, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-200-mpg-carburetor-been-suppressed-by-the-oil-industry/621875 "2012-05-14T11:57:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-200-mpg-carburetor-been-suppressed-by-the-oil-industry/621875/21 "2012-05-16T20:43:34Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Fredric L. Rice** : > > There is no such thing as “alternative energy” or “ancient energy” or “free energy,” and no, the “oil industry” is not suppressing more effective technologies. Well, there _is_ alternative energy, if by that you mean things like windpower or geothermal. But while those are becoming practical for centralized electricity generation, they’re not practical for cars (unless you count electric vehicles that charge up from the grid, or remain connected to the grid while driving). ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-200-mpg-carburetor-been-suppressed-by-the-oil-industry/621875/22 "2012-05-25T22:33:57Z")
What kind of vehicle remains connected to the grid while driving? Are you referring to trolleys and those buses that connect to overhead power lines? ---
**Author:** ![postpic200](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@postpic200](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postpic200)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2012, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-200-mpg-carburetor-been-suppressed-by-the-oil-industry/621875/23 "2012-05-26T16:41:41Z")
No big whatever isn’t suppressing the 200 mpg carburetor, and if you think about it you can see why. If such a carburetor was possible, and given the number of people working on carburetors around the world at least one other person would have cracked it someplace in the world. If you look at airplanes, light bulbs, phonographs, etc, you can see odds are someone someplace would have came up with the same idea. Which would mean big whatever would be running all over the world paying off people and governments to suppress this carburetor. What are the odds that every person and government would be bought off? Now if according to the stories this carburetor go out into the public by accident, that would mean they had a production line build to the point of putting together test carburetors, and that would mean more than one person knew how it worked. What stopping those people from sharing that information or from selling the idea to someone else? Finally, you can find plans for the “suppressed” Stan Meyers water powered car, for HHO, and for the 200 mpg carburetor US Patent # 1,750,354 , US Patent # 2,026,798, US Patent # 1,997,497 , and I remember seeing a CD for sale that had a number of 200 mpg carburetors plans, 19.95 if I remember right. Don’t have the link anymore but I’m sure with a little searching you can find it. So if big whatever is suppressing it, they aren’t doing a very good job are they? ---
**Author:** ![postpic200](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@postpic200](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postpic200)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2012, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-200-mpg-carburetor-been-suppressed-by-the-oil-industry/621875/24 "2012-05-27T13:42:59Z")
Found the links but they are all dead now. All the articles are from 2004 and 2005 so its not surprising. The company [http://fuelvapors.com](http://fuelvapors.com) seem to have shut down in late 2010 at least that’s when the website seems to have shutdown. Here’s an article that describes what’s on the cd > **[CD Offers Shortcut to Very High Miles Per Gallon in a Car](https://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/01/02/312576.html)** > > January 1, 2005 -- Many people are aware of > the fact that gasoline introduced into an engine in liquid form, such as > by carburetion or fuel injection, has to be changed into a vapor before it > will burn. Liquid fuel simply does not ignite.... ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2012, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-200-mpg-carburetor-been-suppressed-by-the-oil-industry/621875/25 "2012-05-27T13:59:34Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > 1940? I’ll give you a [patented one from 1902.](Heinlein alludes to it in an early story of his (“Let There Be Light”)) And it works, supposedly and only under particular conditions that you are unlikely to encounter these days, like a large one or two cylinder engine operating at a constant 600 RPM and with a top speed of 15 MPH. The SAE-sponsored [Supermileage](http://students.sae.org/competitions/supermileage/about.htm) competition is pretty much just that. and as for this silly “200 mpg” carburetor myth, all one has to do is realize that even today with high-pressure direct injection, cars are still nowhere near 200 mpg. ---
**Author:** ![timbuktu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@timbuktu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/timbuktu)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-200-mpg-carburetor-been-suppressed-by-the-oil-industry/621875/26 "2012-11-13T01:32:12Z")
yes a 200 mpg carburetor came out about 33 years ago. no dimensions were given but a diagram and theory was given. some testmonials were given by people who had build them. i was going to build one myself being a pattern maker in school. i have the information around in one of my boxes of papers. and yes the patent was bought by the oil companies but it had expired and all you could do is build it to put on your own cars or sale your cars with it on it. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-200-mpg-carburetor-been-suppressed-by-the-oil-industry/621875/27 "2012-11-13T01:38:33Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > These days, of course, fuel injection is the norm, so, as predicted by Cecil, improved carburetors are a dead end. Other stuff is going on, too. My latest car is the biggest, heaviest car I’ve ever owned, and has the highest acceleration, too. But it also gets the best gas milage I’ve ever had. How? A turbocharger (which increases maximum on-demand power without significantly increasing fuel consumption when idling or cruising) and a six-speed DSG transmission that has no torque converter to waste power, shifts automatically, and can usually do it in seven milliseconds. I’m guessing you mean miles per gallon of diesel, since I’m pretty sure that the DSG gearboxes aren’t available on gas engined Volkswagens and Audis. Turbochargers aren’t really an efficency upgrade, except maybe in an indirect sense. All they do is cram more air & fuel into the cylinders than they’d suck in on their own; this still burns more fuel, although it gives more power and a higher compression ratio as well. I guess where you’d see any efficiency gains is if you drove around mostly without any turbo boost, and then when you need the power of a big engine, you stomp on it and get more power than that relatively smaller engine usually provides. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-200-mpg-carburetor-been-suppressed-by-the-oil-industry/621875/28 "2012-11-13T01:47:16Z")
> [@timbuktu](#): > > yes a 200 mpg carburetor came out about 33 years ago. no dimensions were given but a diagram and theory was given. some testmonials were given by people who had build them. i was going to build one myself being a pattern maker in school. i have the information around in one of my boxes of papers. and yes the patent was bought by the oil companies but it had expired and all you could do is build it to put on your own cars or sale your cars with it on it. Gee, if _I_ had that type of information available, I certainly wouldn’t shove it into a box and forget about it for over thirty years. Got any solid info for us, like who invented it, which oil company bought it out and where it was tested? ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-200-mpg-carburetor-been-suppressed-by-the-oil-industry/621875/29 "2012-11-13T02:15:11Z")
Nonsense. To begin with, patents are matters of public record. When the patent runs out, anyone can get it, and anyone can use it. Yet this same story has been making the rounds since the 60s, to my certain knowledge, and—I hear—long before. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-200-mpg-carburetor-been-suppressed-by-the-oil-industry/621875/30 "2012-11-13T02:34:30Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I’m guessing you mean miles per gallon of diesel, since I’m pretty sure that the DSG gearboxes aren’t available on gas engined Volkswagens and Audis. They are certainly available on the CC; I bloody well own one. > [@](#): > > Turbochargers aren’t really an efficency upgrade, except maybe in an indirect sense. All they do is cram more air & fuel into the cylinders than they’d suck in on their own; this still burns more fuel, although it gives more power and a higher compression ratio as well. > > I guess where you’d see any efficiency gains is if you drove around mostly without any turbo boost, and then when you need the power of a big engine, you stomp on it and get more power than that relatively smaller engine usually provides. Precisely. It gives me the milage of a 4, but with the maximum torque of a 6 for the few seconds per day that I need it. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-200-mpg-carburetor-been-suppressed-by-the-oil-industry/621875/31 "2012-11-13T03:01:08Z")
> [@timbuktu](#): > > yes a 200 mpg carburetor came out about 33 years ago. no dimensions were given but a diagram and theory was given. some testmonials were given by people who had build them. i was going to build one myself being a pattern maker in school. i have the information around in one of my boxes of papers. and yes the patent was bought by the oil companies but it had expired and all you could do is build it to put on your own cars or sale your cars with it on it. So why don’t you become rich and famous by building and selling them? The Illuminati holding you back? Black helicopters? Logic? ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-200-mpg-carburetor-been-suppressed-by-the-oil-industry/621875/32 "2012-11-13T06:25:08Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Gee, if _I_ had that type of information available, I certainly wouldn’t shove it into a box and forget about it for over thirty years. Got any solid info for us, like who invented it, which oil company bought it out and where it was tested? And what meds you are on. ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-200-mpg-carburetor-been-suppressed-by-the-oil-industry/621875/33 "2012-11-23T03:30:13Z")
That 200 MPG carburetor will go great with my [toilet paper oil filter](http://www.frantzoil.com/home.html). ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-200-mpg-carburetor-been-suppressed-by-the-oil-industry/621875/34 "2012-11-23T03:57:43Z")
Even assuming there is some conspiracy to kill alternate energy, why would auto manufacturers give a shit, unless they are all owned by energy companies? ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2012, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-200-mpg-carburetor-been-suppressed-by-the-oil-industry/621875/35 "2012-11-26T21:23:09Z")
Look, the carburetor is not a major efficiency loss for an internal combustion engine. You can eke out small efficiency gains by good designs, but bad carburator designs do not spew 90% of the gasoline unburned out the tailpipe. And anyway, most new cars today don’t even have carburetors. It’s simple nonsense to think that a simple tweak to an internal combustion engine can make it 10 times as efficient. Yes, you can make incredibly fuel efficient vehicles that get amazing gas mileage. But these vehicles aren’t stock cars with more efficient engines, they are designed from the ground up to maximize fuel efficiency. Which means a single occupant, exotic lightweight materials, no cargo space, no safety equipment (such as, you know headlights), low maximum top speed, low acceleration, poor handling, and so on. The techniques for making a super efficient vehicle aren’t secret, but they require design choices that are unacceptable to 99% of vehicle owners, and wouldn’t be street legal. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-200-mpg-carburetor-been-suppressed-by-the-oil-industry/621875/36 "2012-11-27T20:11:26Z")
> [@timbuktu](#): > > some testmonials were given This is engraved on the Tomb of the Unknown Pseudoscientist. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-200-mpg-carburetor-been-suppressed-by-the-oil-industry/621875/37 "2012-12-01T10:05:49Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > all one has to do is realize that even today with high-pressure direct injection, cars are still nowhere near 200 mpg. Hey, cars ‘today’ can’t be very efficient: the catalytic coverter is there to burn unburned fuel in the exhaust. The unburned fuel is there because the engine runs rich. The engine runs rich to prevent the formation of NOx emissions, which kill trees, kill city residents, and prevent global warming. I don’t know how much of the fuel efficiency of a modern car is due to gearbox, and how much to the engine, but remember, it got a lot worse in the 70’s. ---
**Author:** ![Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-200-mpg-carburetor-been-suppressed-by-the-oil-industry/621875/38 "2012-12-01T13:23:27Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Hey, cars ‘today’ can’t be very efficient: the catalytic coverter is there to burn unburned fuel in the exhaust. > > The unburned fuel is there because the engine runs rich. The engine runs rich to prevent the formation of NOx emissions, which kill trees, kill city residents, and prevent global warming. > > I don’t know how much of the fuel efficiency of a modern car is due to gearbox, and how much to the engine, but remember, it got a lot worse in the 70’s. Cars ‘today’ would get double their current gas mileage if they weighed the same as cars in the Seventies. A Honda Accord weighs as much as a full size Chevy Impala once did but is several feet shorter. People have traded efficiency for crash protection. If we eliminated SUVs, we could dial back some of that extra weight in cars. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-200-mpg-carburetor-been-suppressed-by-the-oil-industry/621875.md?page=1)