SteamCar - Alternative Fuel - Steam Power Generator..News from the past.

I remember the feeling of great optimism when men walked on the moon in 1969 and in 1975 we were moved to tears when the astronauts and cosmonauts of the American Apollo spacecraft and the USSR’s Soyuz19 spacecraft joined up and shook hands in space. We really believed that the world’s future problems could be solved by those incredible scientists, the boffins, the men in white coats holding slide rules. These scientists together with those brave square jawed spacemen would save us from any disaster. Soon we would be traveling through space ourselves visiting Mars for a holiday. Then the first oil crisis came along and some scientists talked about pollution and started criticizing our beloved automobile. Were we really worried then? No because we all believed the other scientists would solve the problem, you know the ones wearing unfashionable clothes who ‘talked funny’ and smoked pipes. In 1972 the American astronauts of Apollo 17 drove the Lunar Rover and covered over 30kms on the moon. If scientists could make a car that did that surely they could design a ‘clean’ car to work on the earth. No worries mate.

Then along came Ted Pritchard driving his white 1963 Ford Falcon installed with his revolutionary steam engine designed to run on a variety of freely available fuels none of which were oil bi-products. Here we had a brilliant cost effective solution to the oil crisis and even better Ted’s engine only created one tenth of the pollution that a modern internal combustion engine creates burning petrol. Ted was a blooming hero and a good fair dinkum Aussie as well, a local bloke who was going to save the world. The media loved him and like a Knight in shiny armor he appeared in the newspapers and on television driving his white Falcon all over Australia. I remember seeing his car at a motor show, I looked under the bonnet and saw the simplicity of his design work and watched as the car performed demonstration runs. I’m sure everyone who saw it believed that in just a few years we would all be able to buy a modern car with Ted’s engine installed, yep just a few years. There it was, problem solved! And by an inventor a boffin just like we knew it would be. So what the bloody hell happened? Why aren’t we driving around in his car right now, especially when the greenhouse gases are beginning to do ‘funny’ things with our weather, was our faith in these mad scientists misplaced?

It’s like everything else today and you can sum it up with one word ‘disappointment’. When we see images of the latest space crew tooling around in low orbit in an ancient thirty year old space bus aptly named ‘The Shuttle’ all I can think of is ‘will these poor bastards get home in one piece or will they become part of a disintegrated mass of burning space junk landing in someone’s back yard and ruining their barbecue’. It’s not like there aren’t any geniuses around; how many people know that a small private twenty man company called Scaled Composites built an equally small space ship called ‘Space Ship One’ and blasted it into space on October 4 2004. On the way back from space their little craft used a revolutionary new method of re-entry and didn’t even get hot. I’m not suggesting for a minute that we get Ted Pritchard to launch his 1963 white Ford Falcon into space, but I really want to know why we aren’t using his technology right now in this glorious country of ours. A country which still dredges up millions of tons of filthy inefficient brown coal and burns it up to produce electricity. Back then at the car show in the 70’s when I marveled at Ted’s brilliant invention I didn’t notice the other blokes in the crowd. Those blokes in the suits that were directors and managers of large automotive companies, blokes with friends who managed oil companies. Big bosses with big budgets and even bigger plans for the future. They looked at Ted Pritchard and his invention and just couldn’t see anything in it for them, it had no monetary value. Why tool up for a new engine when you didn’t have to? Why make an enemy out of some of your friends who owned oil companies when you didn’t have to? Can you really expect the investors of a motor company to pay for a solution to the world’s environmental problems?

Do yourself a favor and go to Ted Pritchard’s web site there’s never been a better time to do it. http://www.pritchardpower.com.au Ted Pritchard sadly passed away in 2007, but not before designing a newer more fuel efficient motor that will run on very simple bio-friendly fuels. His wife and family are still actively running Ted's company. Go to his web site and read about it. We won’t have any oil left soon and do you really want to wait until the oil companies come up with their alternative? Surely they’ve had their chance and blown it! They will hang on until the bitter end inefficiently squeezing the last drop of oil from unyielding rocks and keep bumping up the price of this obsolete juice so we cover all their costs. I love cars. I’m like Mr. Toad from ‘The Wind in the Willows’ putt, putt, putt. I don’t want to live in a world where I have to spend half my income running a tiny plastic hybrid car with a 200cc engine THAT STILL USES PETROL.

Come on let’s listen to these mad scientists again! We should be on the way to Mars in a radical new space ship powered by an Ion drive not hurling dangerous thirty year old pieces of space junk into space with crossed fingers hoping against hope that the thing won’t blow up yet again. We live in a sunny country that could easily produce cheap efficient fuels like Ethanol from a variety of existing plants such as cane sugar; we are doing it right now. We should be ‘disappointed’ in ourselves for letting people like Ted Pritchard down and not blame big multi national companies for doing what they have to do and that is make money for their investors. (Not that I am condoning that, but we have to face reality). If you make a big enough fuss you will create a demand in the market place that no company will ignore. Start having faith in our own capacity to solve problems. What we have to is to embrace Ted Pritchard’s radical new steam engine. If you’ve got a few million bucks to spare why not invest it in all of our futures and give Ted's family a ring they are still waiting to carry out his dream. Ted deserved better, and you know what? His dream is my dream as well, do it for Mr. Toad, putt, putt, putt, putt.