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What is the biggest scam you've fallen for? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

Haha I never knew there was a real person attached to that myth. I was hearing about that as a big conspiracy theory from teachers when I was kid all the way here in Australia.

That's interesting he did produce an actual machine that could move though. I was reading the Wikipedia about him and they don't go in to that exactly. They point out that his design and vehicle were just using conventional electrolysis and thus couldn't work as claimed, but it still moved. What was the catch then? It uses a battery to do the electrolysis, does it just use up all the battery to inefficienly split out the hydrogen using more energy than gained from the hydrogen in the process? Making it a really weird electric car?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Stanley Meyer's invention was later termed fraudulent after two investors to whom he had sold dealerships offering the right to do business in Water Fuel Cell technology sued him in 1996. His car was due to be examined by the expert witness Michael Laughton, Professor of Electrical Engineering at Queen Mary University of London and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. However, Meyer made what Professor Laughton considered a "lame excuse" on the days of examination and did not allow the test to proceed.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fuel_cell

Probably the dune buggy never ran on the system he claimed. He was a fraudster, so probably it was just running on gas like normal while he was claiming it was all water.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 23 hours ago

Ah I see my confusion now

His "water fuel cell" was later examined by three expert witnesses in court who found that there "was nothing revolutionary about the cell at all and that it was simply using conventional electrolysis."

I initially took it to mean they'd examined the fuel cell in the vehicle but the way that's written it's not necessarily the case so it was probably a separate demo prototype to the buggy.