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John Andrews—known to some as John Andruss—spoke with a thick accent he clamed was Portuguese. But it wasn’t the way he said things as much as what he said that caught people’s attention. He claimed, for example, that he could convert a bucket of tap water into a gasoline substitute that would cost only three cents a gallon.
All this happened more than 60 years ago and John may have long since gone to that Great Gas Station in the Sky. Maybe he’s up there right now pumping gas or maybe he's pumping water—they were the same to him, he often said. Or maybe, on the other hand, his bullet-riddled body and cement-encased soul are still with us, out in the Jersey Meadows, where the Mafia hit men fulfilled their contract to the oil companies.
No matter. Long Gone John's brag lives on. If he never proved that he could do it, nobody ever proved that he couldn’t. But we're getting ahead of our story which can best be told in the words of Captain E. P. Jessop, U. S. Navy (Retired) who used these pages, in March 1936, to tell how he and other naval officers and civilians had witnessed a demonstration by Andrews at the New York Navy Yard “in 1916, or early in 1917."
Andrews appeared at the navy yard driving a Pack* car, accompanied by another man who stated that he w banker from McKeesport, Pennsylvania. The banker s he had discovered Andrews some time before, making^ ^ periments in his backyard, on an old engine which he retrieved from a scrap heap and which he had repair Andrews claimed that the fuel on which he was runn , his engine was for the most part water. Since discov ^ Andrews, the banker had been putting up small anto of money to assist Andrews in perfecting his fuel-
The banker further stated that they had come all t ^ way from Pittsburgh in the Packard, using nothing Andrews’ fuel, no gasoline having been purchased alo i the route. When they used up a tank of fuel, he, the ^ banker, would get a bucket of water, put it in the t and they would come on. e
One of the striking things the banker said was that ^ Andrews had run out of dope and while he was getting^ bucket of water, Andrews went into the nearest drug and procured the necessary chemicals. ^
Of course all this might have been for the purpose ^ creating sufficient interest to assure Andrews an opP° nity to demonstrate his product, but in light of sub sequent events I see no reason for doubting the truth 0 the story. __
Andrews’ request was that he be permitted to dem°n strate on one of our own engines that he could run an internal-combustion engine using water as fuel. Horn1* one would have thought he would desire to demons with his own Packard engine, especially if his perform®^ were not honest and above board. His not using his engine certainly added to our interest in the proposed demonstration.
It happened that we had one of our navy-type, rn° boat engines already on the testing block, connected UP^ for some tests we were going to run. This engine was 0 of the motor boat three-cylinder, two-cycle engines w1 had been built at the Norfolk Navy Yard.
We naturally agreed to permit him to make the den1 ^ stration and arranged that he return the next morning nine o’clock when we would have officers there to witn the test. Very naturally we did not believe his demonstr tion would be a success, but at that time no inventors were being turned away merely because we thought t could not do what they claimed, since our entering war seemed very probable, and we were not taking a‘k chances of missing anything which might be useful- idea of ships being able to take their fuel from over the side was especially attractive. .
The officers present at the test next morning inclu Admiral Burd, industrial manager of the yard; Lieuten-1 Commander McDowell, officer in charge of the laborat0 and the writer. Dr. Miller Reese Hutchinson, Mr. Ed> son’s assistant, and then connected with the Naval C°n
smaii
valVi
th,
e m the bottom of his can, and permitted the liquid in e can to run into the feed tank. He rather ostentatiously
uJ’ng Board, was also present. There may have been
er officers present, but the above I know were there.
^ Andrews appeared promptly at nine, accompanied by
s banker friend. The only paraphernalia he had with him
a cylindrical can large enough to hold about a gallon
a small satchel such as doctors use to carry instru-
j 6nts 0r medicines in but not large enough to secrete any
r£e amount of liquid. I am sure you could have put a
°ntainer large enough to hold a gallon in it, but that is
^material as later events will show.
■ ■
e investigated the can and found it was empty; so we
®ave Andrews a bucket of water. He got into the rear seat of u- °
,s automobile, an open car, with his can, small
and the bucket of water. In a short time he passed can out to me and it was evidently full of something. I arried the can into the laboratory. In the meantime an Xamination showed that a proper quantity of water was jj°ne from the bucket, and we could find no way in which e could have disposed of it except by putting it into the an> although we knew that he might have extra tanks ufCreted *n cbe car, so the fact that we could find no trace the water was not at that time taken as proof he used e water as he claimed.
ne engine set-up was as follows: The engine on the ^St block was connected to an electric dynamometer to ^termine the horsepower developed, revolution counters, ermometers, etc. The feed tank was about 5 feet away a shelf on the wall and connected to the carburetor by p e Usual copper feed line. The tank was an open tank tted with a sight glass, so we could see how much fuel ^as *n the tank at any time. This tank had been drained of gasoline as had the carburetor and the engine.
Andrews took the can from my hands, stepped up on a
step, which was there for that purpose, opened the
eid the bottom of the can with one hand in the fingers of ^bich he held a lighted cigarette, the lighted end being Ut a few inches from the flowing liquid—a rather obvi- Us attempt to demonstrate that the fuel at this time was 1101 highly gaseous.
^IlAdmiral Burd here openly expressed what had been in °f our minds, by saying:
Mr. Andrews, we are willing to admit that the water ls gone from the bucket, and that we do not know what y°u did with it, if you did not use it in your can, but chd not see you mix the fuel and even if you do Successfully run the engine now we cannot certify that you really use water as the bulk of your fuel.” j bfrre Andrews did a surprising thing, so surprising that gave us the feeling for the first time that he might fea,ly have what he claimed to have. There was no hesita- °n about his answer to Admiral Burd’s objection to his °cedure. He instantly turned to me and said, “Give me
the bucket, and there before our eyes he poured from the bucket at least half a gallon of water into the feed tank. He then took from his vest pocket a small phial and dropped six or seven drops of a greenish liquid into the tank. This seemed to be the only rectification the fuel needed for the extra half gallon of water which he had poured in, for he got down off the step and said, “Start the engine.”
Up to this time he had not touched the set-up of the engine but had accepted the test arrangement just as we had it for our own test with gasoline.
When the engine started it sputtered a bit and he adjusted the needle valve just a trifle, whereupon the engine settled down to its work, consumed every drop of fuel in the tank, and developed 75 per cent of its rated horsepower, running as steadily as it would have run on gasoline.
The exhaust was clear, colorless, and without any distinctive odor, giving no evidence at all that half a gallon of water had gone in with the fuel; no steam or water appearing.
The only thing which appeared not to be in accordance with what Andrews had told us was this: he had said that his mixture was about 95 per cent water and the rest his chemical, and yet he had used merely a few drops to convert half a gallon of water into fuel so that the proportion would seem to be nearer 99.99 per cent water. However, the engine produced only 75 per cent of its rated horsepower so that a greater amount of the chemical might have produced a richer fuel, but even then it looked as though he had understated the amount of water in comparison with the amount of chemical.
Before leaving the engine, Andrews made us run the engine with gasoline, so as to make sure we would not find anything in the engine to give us a hint as to what he was using. He then stated he would be down the next morning when he would run the engine with salt water as fuel if we would produce the salt water.
By this time we were in a state of mind difficult to describe. We had seen a gas engine assimilate a great percentage of water in its fuel when all our experience had proved that a very small percentage of water in the fuel would make the engine refuse duty, and the simplicity of Andrews equipment seemed to make it impossible for him to have deceived us.
We sent a tug outside Sandy Hook to get real sea water, since the harbor water is only brackish. The next morning Andrews appeared as scheduled. This time, however, we did not permit him to get into the tonneau of his machine to mix the fuel, but instead we told him we were going to put him into a small room which was entirely bare of furniture or equipment of any kind, and which had no drain where water could be disposed of.
He made no objections to this arrangement. He mixed
taking about 30 minutes, when we stopped at a field dering a river in which was a barn-like structure divi
the fuel, and passed the can out to me. Inspection showed no sign of his having thrown any water on the floor, and the necessary amount of water was gone from the bucket which contained sea water.
In the laboratory the happenings of the previous day were repeated, including the pouring of half a gallon of water from the bucket into the feed on top of the liquid from the can, and the rectification of the added water by dropping a few drops of the chemical from the 4-ounce phial.
This time the engine did not sputter but settled down and again developed 75 per cent of its rated horsepower while consuming all the liquid in the feed tank.
While the engine was running the banker turned to me and asked what I thought Andrews had. When I naturally said, “Don’t you know?” he answered “No, he will not tell me anything.”
After the second day’s demonstration we all felt that Andrews should be given an opportunity to demonstrate his fuel to the Bureau of Engineering in Washington, so Lieutenant Commander McDowell was sent with him to Washington to see that he was given every attention.
Andrews made the demonstration for the Bureau so convincingly that he was asked to place a price on his invention. When he named a price of $2,000,000, he was informed that the Navy Department would put $2,000,000 in “escrow” in any reputable bank he would designate, the money to be his when he had divulged the formula and had taught ten naval officers to successfully mix the fuel. He refused the offer, stating that he must have the cash in hand before telling them anything.
This attitude seems to have instilled a belief in the minds of the officers interested that there must be some trick in his demonstration and they let him go. He disappeared and so far as the writer knows has not appeared since.
Personally, I believe that John Andrews had a very valuable secret, and it is a pity some way could not have been worked out to satisfy his requirements.
The possibilities of the thing seem endless—gas-engine installations both afloat and ashore and the fuel problem solved for all time; motorists stopping at every stream to fill their fuel tanks, and the wayside gas stations reduced to sales of lubricating oils only; oil refineries out of business or reduced to by-products only; all buildings including the home with individual lighting and power plants; transportation needs curtailed and coal a glut on the market. Well, one might run on endlessly but that is all futile until someone else finds Andrews’ secret.
Perhaps one of the readers of this detailed description of the demonstration may be able to suggest the solution.
It would be almost two years before the Proceedings wou publish a response to Captain Jessop’s article. In 1938, Captain Ernest Nibbs, a former commander tn Royal Navy, wrote that he had had a similar experitntt July 1915, whilst Nibbs was Engineer in Chief of t e British Admiralty in the United States. Nibbs explotne that he had received a cable directing him to proceed to McKeesport to investigate a certain John Andruss an intriguing claim.
Arriving at McKeesport about 11:00 a.m., I waS ^ £ ited by a taxi at a weather-beaten, two-story frame ^ to which, after explaining my mission, I was admitte was greeted by Dr. R. Chambers who was the business^ associate of John Andruss and, after introducing me t0 latter, he informed me he had three financiers from York in the parlor and asked if I would mind tagginb along and saying nothing until after they had seen th demonstration and left, when my particular mission co be discussed. ^
We all got into a Packard limousine, which was not old model, and drove out somewhere into the countryinternally by a partition into two rooms. In one was an ordinary house-heating boiler, the steam pipe from 'v passed through the partition and was piped up to a c ^ submerged in a large tin bath of cold water, with its °P end leading into a gallon glass jar.
Still tagging along, I saw the boiler filled through £ hand hold, it being empty when first examined. Fres river water was poured into the boiler from a bucket [1] about an 8-ounce bottle of some liquid emptied into 11 Andruss. The hand hole cover was then replaced and 1 ^ lit. In about half an hour or a little longer, clear color liquid began to drop into the gallon jar.
Meanwhile the business associate was talking to the financiers, explaining that the necessary chemicals c°u ^ be bought anywhere in the United States where there ^ a drug store—could be manufactured on a large and c scale in any country in the world. He said he had sorf1^ ( bits of the finished product in his pocket and produce small box from which he took a piece of whitish sub stance. He explained the substance had awful power m and asking us all to stand back he tossed a broken-o fragment into the open bath of water. It behaved l>ke potassium or phosphorus and the financiers shrank ba ^ when it darted about on the water’s surface hissing a° smoking, saying “My God, what pep!"
Soon half a gallon of distillate was collected and sin the New York gentlemen wanted to catch a certain tra it was’decided to proceed with this amount. The Packat rear tank was drained—it had only about a gallon of gasoline in it. Everyone satisfied himself the tank 'vaS
tion
had
^ compared with gas, though I noted the exhaust a different odor than that produced by the gasoline of
of
Potential value, I suggested the following procedure: That as the Admiralty naturally would desire more extensive tests than those given that day, and as his need for ex- tfeme care and secrecy was recognized, I would undertake to provide an unused, brand new motor launch in one of '''hose fuel tanks nothing had ever been stowed. The etlgines would be tuned up using gasoline from one of the °ther available tanks and when ready the launch would be Moored at least 20 feet from a pier with all tanks empty. ^Odruss could then go aboard with his little black bag ''’ith me and I would flood the selected tank with sea 'Vater, make all secure, and go ashore. He was then to
ei*ipty and then the half gallon of substitute was poured n- The car was immediately started and no difference c°uld be noted in its operation when using this prepara
r at day • After going about 4 or 5 miles along a few coun- tfy roads, always keeping near the barn, the engine finally Peered out. Examination showed the rear tank to be ^ttpty. Gasoline from a spare can was then used and the ew York gentlemen were soon afterwards driven to the tat*°n by Andruss’s business associate to catch their train. ndruss and I remained at the barn and he then explained at he had a much better proposition for the British gov- err>tnent, viz., a mixture of chemicals that when mixed ldl water—either salt or fresh—was ready for immediate Use since no distilling process was required. Very valuable, Sa*d I. Were the chemicals easily obtained? Very easily, every country has an ample supply. Were they cheap to Produce? So much so that a gallon of gas substitute might C°st rhree or four cents. Many leading questions were cleverly parried, the reason given being that the process was n°r patented because of the ease with which anyone could tjlen make his own homebrew—so to speak—and royal- tles would be uncollectible. It was so simple that he dared not let anybody—not even his business associate—know any details, and further, he would not let out a word until e had a million dollars cash deposited to his account in a ^ank of his own choosing. Soon his friend returned in the ackard, and then a scene similar to that Captain Jessop °hserved was played for my benefit. Rear tank ertlPtied—a bucket of river water obtained—placed on floor of the car in the driver's compartment—an 'Ounce bottle of colorless liquid shown me—a request to stand back 20 feet, Andruss with his back to me appar- j^dy pouring the contents of the bottle into the Ucket—the bucket emptied into the rear tank—the car Started and run at between 20 and 30 miles per hour until a8ain the engine petered out. Rear tank found to be err>pty. Requests to be allowed to inspect the car were Politely refused as I would mess up my clothes.
Being at the time convinced that the whole thing was a shady hue, and yet not wanting to pass up anything of empty his dope or what not into the tank and my trial crew was then to go aboard and run the engines until the tank was empty. During the run we were to proceed over the measured mile three times. When all fuel substitute was expended, we were to anchor, everyone to go ashore except Andruss and myself; Andruss was to supervise my flushing out the tank. If the speed obtained over the mile was within 90 per cent of that obtained when using gasoline the trial would be deemed successful and I promised (far exceeding my authority) that the Admiralty would pay the million dollars. The preliminary terms were agreed to wholeheartedly by Andruss and his associate and I departed from McKeesport feeling I had been bamboozled but nevertheless certain that an unhampered examination would disclose some trick tanks, valves, etc. I reported back to London by cable and received further instructions that I was to arrange for the same test in Canadian waters if possible. On seeing Mr. Andruss the following month, I learned that he had made a demonstration in New York for a Mr. D. A. Thomas who was with the British Ministry of Munitions and I gathered that the inventor preferred to deal with this gentleman rather than with me. However, Mr. Thomas and I worked in unison thereafter but neither of us was able to arrange for the demonstration or, in fact, come to any agreement whatsoever for a convincing trial so that the matter was dropped then and there. Andruss’s last excuse was that he had meanwhile come to an agreement for a U. S. naval test at Brooklyn. This test was apparently the one Captain Jessop witnessed.
According to Captain Jessop’s experience with the Navy boat engine, it was a bona fide test on that occasion and therefore it is hard to understand why further progress could not have been made. Five cases of such demonstrations are known—one on the Indianapolis Speedway to certain oil interests reported by some newspaper of which I saw clippings—one to some New York financial group one to British Admiralty witnessed by me—one to Mr. D. A. Thomas—and one to the U. S. Navy referred to by Captain Jessop. That none of these was able to come to any satisfactory conclusion or agreement seems significant. Andruss, supposing him to be a man with intense distrust of everyone else, apparently had not set up a gasoline filling station at some corner where he could make a living out of selling “Andruss High-Test Gasoline from his garden well, as otherwise it would soon have become known. Perhaps he has gone back to his native Portugal and is amassing a competence there, but if so the various oil companies in the world would soon have become cognizant of it, and this does not appear to be so. Perhaps even now some capitalistic, monopolistic, diabolical but otherwise honest oil company has paid the one or two millions for the privilege of owning, but not using, the secret.