Pretty Cool Conspircacy Theory: Tom Ogle

[Otter]

Read this story last night on a conspiracy theory list and never heard of it before even though it's quiet interesting. A whole lot more details can be found through a Google search but here's the Readers Digest version;

Tom Ogle invented a vapor-fuel intake system, in 1977, for all automobiles. His system could be affixed to any existing car engine, and would enable the car to travel 100 miles on one gallon of gas. He claimed that the emissions were clean enough that you could dry your hair with the exhaust. He astounded the auto industry with his invention, and was, in fact, approached in 1978 by a representative of Shell Oil, who offered him $20 million, on the spot, for the patent and plans to his invention. He refused, stating flatly that Shell would simply shelve the idea and it would never see the light of day.

Tom Ogle was found dead from an apparent overdose of Darvon and alcohol poisoning on 19, August, 1981. He had been known to drink, but never so heavily that he had to go to the hospital. The Darvon is the weakest link to the report that his death was an accidental suicide: Darvon is an opioid painkiller. It does nothing else, and Ogle had no history of using it. He also had no immediate history of pain requiring an opioid analgesic. The theory states that he was murdered by a Shell-hired assassin, who made it look like a suicide. He actually got his fuel system patented, on 11 December, 1979, with patent number 4,177,179. He was shot and wounded outside an El Paso, TX, bar earlier in the summer of 1981. He claimed that people were after him for his patent. Three months after his death, his original schematics and blueprints went missing from the Patent Office in Washington, DC. Some of his schematics have turned up on the Internet, but not enough have surfaced to actually build his device.

[Pushead2]

[Lex Luthor]

It's an interesting conspiracy theory, but you have to think that if his idea really worked, somebody else would have been able to invent the same thing in the last 33 years.

[rockymtnchief]

Yup. I've read of Tom. He got his idea from working on a lawnmower with a hole in the gas tank, iirc.

[Nzoner]

This immediately reminded me of the 1980 film The Formula

[rockymtnchief]

http://tom.ogle.ms6.net/

1979 article.

[Lbedrock1]

Originally Posted by Brainiac

It's an interesting conspiracy theory, but you have to think that if his idea really worked, somebody else would have been able to invent the same thing in the last 33 years.

You think so huh? Who invented the light bulb? You will be surprised to hear the truth if you think it was Edison.

[Otter]

Originally Posted by Brainiac

It's an interesting conspiracy theory, but you have to think that if his idea really worked, somebody else would have been able to invent the same thing in the last 33 years.

I found this one particularly interesting because the oil companies may have not had the insight into the limitations of combustion engine technology at the time and believed the threat posed by his invention legitimate. I'm certainly not saying it's valid theory, just interesting.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by Brainiac

It's an interesting conspiracy theory, but you have to think that if his idea really worked, somebody else would have been able to invent the same thing in the last 33 years.

Tell that to Tesla...

[mesmith31]

Occam's Razor...just sayin...

[Radar Chief]

Originally Posted by Lbedrock1

You think so huh?

Yes, I do.
Even back in 1981 they knew that the roadblock to better fuel efficiency from a four-stroke motor isn’t necessarily the intake, it’s the ignition.
Until a better form of igniting the air/fuel mixture than a spark plug comes along engine designers are stuck with having to induct around a 14:1 air/fuel in order to keep igniting the mixture with one.
If this theory instead of being about some kind of “vapor intake”, assuming that’s somehow different than a typical “wet intake” i.e. what a carb or throttle body injection uses, was about an innovative ignition that does away with the spark plug then I would be intrigued. Until then this is the “60 MPG carburetor” conspiracy theory revisited.

[jjjayb]

So the oil company offered him 20 million in 1978 and he declined. They then waited 4 years to have him killed. Sounds plausible.

He had this magic system patented in 1979, yet it still hadn't taken off 2 years later when he killed himself. Yep. Sounds like a conspiricy to me.

[Chiefs Rool]

wouldn't surprise me

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Radar Chief

Yes, I do.
Even back in 1981 they knew that the roadblock to better fuel efficiency from a four-stroke motor isn’t necessarily the intake, it’s the ignition.
Until a better form of igniting the air/fuel mixture than a spark plug comes along engine designers are stuck with having to induct around a 14:1 air/fuel in order to keep igniting the mixture with one.
If this theory instead of being about some kind of “vapor intake”, assuming that’s somehow different than a typical “wet intake” i.e. what a carb or throttle body injection uses, was about an innovative ignition that does away with the spark plug then I would be intrigued. Until then this is the “60 MPG carburetor” conspiracy theory revisited.

This. Combustion engines are pretty simple when you get down to it. And there's not some magical device that can be slapped on the side to somehow overcome the same limitations we've been dealing with for 50 some years.

[Bugeater]

The introduction of electronic fuel injection resulted in a substantial increase in fuel economy, why didn't Shell kill the guy who invented that?