Fueling a New Energy Project

by Bill Michaels

I am a Scorpio. I have always had a gift of being able to visualize a solution to a question or problem. Not a vague solution which required translation and which could be read several ways such as in dreams, but a detailed picture in color, sometimes even in motion. Whether this is common to Scorpios as some descriptions of the various birth signs indicate, I don’t know, but I have it, and it has in general served me quite well over the years. It has at times, however, caused me considerable trouble. I cannot explain this “gift” any more than the person who can see ghosts can explain theirs.
While still a young man and working for a “cutting edge” electronics factory, I “saw” a much better way of feeding ceramic substrates (think of miniature bricks made out of china, as small as breakfast cereal) than the tapered carbide “stops” then in use. When these got slight grooves worn in them would not “drop” the part properly and had to be smoothed with a diamond faced grinding wheel. A group of six or seven people did nothing but regrind these “stops” and make new ones, and they believed that they were more valuable employees than the rest of us.

I came up with a design (since adopted worldwide) which eliminated the need for the expensive carbide parts. I was quite proud of myself, thinking how much more profitable the manufacturing process had become.
Imagine my surprise to find that everyone was mad at me. The members of the “carbide team” were most enraged, as they now had to do “ordinary” work. The department head was upset because he now could only be 94% as big a man, and now missed out on all the kickbacks from the carbide suppliers and those selling the diamond grinding wheels.

You might think I would have learned, but I didn’t. I later found myself in an organization which built and repaired motor homes. The inside of these coaches were of plywood with wallpaper on it. They would paint the plywood with a primer paint, which would raise the grain of the wood sometimes to the extent that it would show through the wallpaper. The solution to this was to sand all the plywood after it was installed, necessitating carefully working around cabinets, shelves, appliances, lights, and all manner of things.

I asked why they didn’t sand the plywood before installing it and putting all the stuff in the way. The answer was that they had always done it that way, and making things more difficult for someone not in your department was considered to be of little consequence. They changed the procedure, but I was never thanked, and soon was laid off, and my tool cart and I were ushered off the property. I had to sneak back in to get my lunch box.

During the last “energy crisis” when the Arab nations stopped supplying oil to countries supporting Israel, I remembered an article in a 1898 Encyclopædia about the then recently discovered “liquid air” being a remarkable motor fuel. The civilized world ran on steam at that time, and the best scientific minds of the day were completely agog over the fact that a bucket of liquid air when poured into a slightly modified steam engine would make it run without fire, and consequently without smoke. To a substance which boiled at 312 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, outdoor air, even in winter seemed quite hot. It was even proposed as a fuel for “flying machines” which hadn’t been invented as yet.

Much research was done, and liquid air powered automobiles were successfully demonstrated in 1900. The definition of success then consisted of a couple of laps around a horse race track at little faster speed than a horse could manage and to not break down. These attempts were plagued by the same problem of frost buildup on the surfaces of the heat exchanger as the liquid nitrogen powered car of the 1990s built by the University of Washington on a government grant.

As I settled into rut worn smooth and comfortable by a decade of doing what I do well, I thought less and less frequently about doing something about the ideas I had been given regarding liquid air power. At 68, I was still in excellent health, and most people thought I was in the “Vietnam vet” age group. I was never sick, never missed work, and considered myself an excellent example of someone having the right “beliefs” and creating my own pleasant reality. My combination of the two philosophies, UCYOR (you create your own reality) and the older one which held that we existed to create both joy and misery for the use of the spirit world made for an uncomplicated and pleasant existence. I “believed” that I was healthy, and simply rejected any evidence to the contrary, and when presented by frustration or bad luck, I would simply imagine it having been created by a small, somewhat likeable demon, smile and say “You poor little demon, sorry but there will be no handout of anger, hatred, or rage for you today. I love you, but you might as well go and create frustration for someone else.” (anybody remember the “care bears” who used love as a weapon?) I had a boss at that time who had Parkinson’s Disease and whose medicine made him into a “mean drunk” at times. Sending a little love his way would usually turn him right around.

Anyway, imagine my surprise when I found myself in the local hospital with fluid on my lungs sufficient to hamper my breathing. Upon examining me, it was discovered that I had insurance, so they sold me a pacemaker, and almost killed me with overdoses of medicine. Later when pressing my greater self (or whatever you prefer to call it) as to the reason, I received the answer that unless something like that happened, that I would never get around to my liquid air project, and indicated that this was the reason for my existence in the flesh.

I created a corporation, and found that nothing happens quickly. It took well over a year to legalize the corporation, get an employee number, and secure “not for profit” status with the Internal Revenue Service. The first bit of encouragement was State of Indiana recognition of a private not-for-profit research corporation. Universities and foundations do research, but not private organizations. Churches are non-profit, but don’t do research. Anyway, miracle number one, the state agreed to accept the articles of incorporation for a private not-for-profit research corporation although I am sure than no one involved had ever heard of such a thing.

No problem getting a tax number, just a couple months waiting.
The final hurdle was the governmental approval of the “public charity” classification from the Internal Revenue Service which enabled donors to deduct contributions from their federal income tax. Apparently the government thought this was some new tax scam, and nothing was heard from them for five and half months. Finally, they responded, giving me less than a month to reincorporate, and reword the application.
I found a new lawyer just starting out who would try to meet the deadline (it seems that the rules had changed since I had submitted my application). Between special delivery mail, telephone calls to Indianapolis, emergency board meetings, and some panic on my part she pulled it off. This was miracle number two.

Next hurdle was getting the local newspaper to print a story. I turned in a “press release”, and in a masterpiece of bad timing, the reporter who normally did such stories had resigned, and it was assigned to the editorial writer, who considered it beneath his dignity, and unwelcome extra work besides. In spite of telephone calls to him and whining to the editor, the story remained unprinted. I finally took my “problem” up with the publisher, pointing out that my paid advertising campaign could not be expected to start until the story was published. After over four months, a rather poor excuse for a story appeared buried in the business section (the local model airplane club rates page one —it’s a small paper).

However, a retired draftsman of outstanding qualifications read the article and contacted me. He will do some work without pay, and for the first time in quite a long time I can see the likelyhood of success in my reality. For awhile I was fearing that my efforts were to come to fruition in some adjacent reality. It is a good design, the math checks out, and it violates no law of physics. There is certainly a need.
Finances are the remaining problem. Believe it or not, I have not as yet received my first donation. This is mainly my own fault; I have not worked hard enough at it as yet.

I have contacted local millionaires, some of whose businesses I have supported for years and got no response. Even Al Gore has not as yet even acknowledged receiving my request.

For a fuller explanation, visit http://darlap.com or just Google “darlap”