Everyone who believes in conspiracy theories—and that oil companies and the automotive lobby are behind everything—has reason to celebrate.
An astonishing story unfolded in the United States. To say almost no one knows about it would be an understatement. Anyone who believes in conspiracy theories and thinks oil companies and the automotive lobby control everything will find this story confirms their fears.
Back in the 1970s, a remarkable discovery was made. Like many great discoveries, it happened by accident. American inventor Tom Ogle was mowing his lawn with a gasoline-powered mower. While trying to adjust something, his screwdriver slipped and punctured the fuel tank. Realizing the mower was effectively ruined, he decided to have a little fun before giving up on it.
"I don't know why I did it. I still don't know. But I ran and got a flexible hose, stuck one end into the hole, and connected the other to the carburetor. I shut off the fuel supply. The mower started, and it just kept running. I was amazed, but it operated only on the gasoline vapor mixture," newspapers quoted Tom as saying. He was just 19 years old at the time.
The engine ran for 90 hours. During that entire time, Tom feared it would explode because it had become severely overheated. He kept a fan blowing on it to cool it down.
Realizing he couldn't explain what had happened, Tom decided to scale the effect up for his own car. He continued working his regular job while developing the system in the evenings. One problem kept getting in the way: a vacuum formed inside the fuel tank. Air was being pulled out so aggressively that the tank collapsed.
Eventually, Tom built a thick-walled fuel tank reinforced with ribs, solving that problem. Another one quickly appeared. Working without blueprints and relying only on intuition, he hadn't anticipated that the improved fuel economy would come at the expense of power. His car—later there would be several of them—could barely reach about 19 mph. It consumed only tiny amounts of gasoline, however.
Tom tried to solve that problem on his own. One day, after another slow drive, he touched the fuel tank and was shocked by how cold it felt. Cold vapor was coming from it. Had Tom been familiar with Bernoulli's principle, he might have understood what was happening. Instead, he brought in some tubing, built a coil-like system, heated the mixture inside it, and solved the problem that way.
By 1977, Tom was 21 years old and had refined the entire system. Using his own Ford Galaxie as a test vehicle, he drove 101 miles on just 1.2 gallons of fuel. Before the modifications, the same Ford Galaxie consumed that amount of fuel in only about 12 miles. It was also noted that the exhaust emissions were so minimal that they could be breathed without discomfort.
A self-taught inventor working alone, Tom began making calculations that would later alarm major fuel manufacturers and gas station owners. According to his estimates, it was theoretically possible to travel about 932 miles on just 1.3 gallons of gasoline.
That's when the world learned about him. A press conference was organized outdoors, and experts were invited to witness the demonstration. Tom Ogle made several test drives. During one of them, he drove two journalists and two experts a total of 199 miles while consuming only 2.4 gallons of gasoline.
After returning to the starting point, the experts disassembled the car and confirmed there were no hidden fuel tanks. They also verified that he had not stopped anywhere along the route.
That's when everything changed.
Shell Oil offered Tom $25 million in exchange for revealing his secret. Instead, the inventor disclosed his technology to international financier C. F. Ramsey. Ramsey purchased both the Oglemobile, as it had become known, and the patent.
A contract was signed, and Tom also received the right to join the inventors' group to continue developing the vehicle.
Then, suddenly, everything came to an end. It brings to mind the story of the only black gladiolus, bought by an old man who immediately crushed the bulb in front of the seller, explaining that he had bred the same variety himself. That meant he was now the only person in the world who owned it.
Something similar apparently happened to Tom. It appears he signed an agreement intended to shut the project down and make people forget it. The financier sold all his shares to Advance Fuel Systems Inc., a fuel company that had no interest in such dramatic fuel savings. Falling profits were not part of the company's plans.
Unaware of this, Tom Ogle told the press he intended to open 1,000 dealerships selling his vehicles. In March 1979, the first—and ultimately the only—dealership opened.
Soon afterward, Ogle was informed that the company was shutting the project down. He was told that engineers at Advance Fuel Systems Inc. had developed an entirely new engine concept unrelated to his work. As a result, he was forced to close his dealership. The few vehicles he had sold ended up in private collections, where they reportedly remain today. According to the story, they are still driven and continue to deliver the same impressive results.
What happened to Ogle?
He began drinking. Tom had struggled with gambling before, but luck was never on his side. One day, after losing everything again, he returned home heavily intoxicated. His wife met him at the door and told him she was leaving with their son. She did.
Tom's life continued to unravel. Alcohol was followed by drug use. On August 19, 1981, he was found dead in his home. His blood reportedly contained both alcohol and drugs. There was no real investigation. Police stated that the cause was obvious.
What became of his invention?
According to the story, efforts were made to erase it from history. Researchers in the United States continue to point to what they consider evidence of that. Remember the journalists who rode with him and filmed the news segment? It aired multiple times, but the El Paso NBC station that recorded it reportedly has never been able to locate the footage. It simply disappeared. Someone allegedly removed only that recording from an archive where nothing else had ever gone missing.
The remaining Ogle vehicles were reportedly bought back from their new owners for enormous sums of money. Fortunately, a few are said to have survived. The reason for buying them back, according to the story, is obvious. The others have never been seen again.
The August 1977 issue of Argosy magazine, in which Tom—still far from becoming a businessman—described his discovery in great detail, was reportedly removed from libraries across the country. The article, including text, illustrations, and diagrams, filled nearly six pages. According to the story, that issue cannot even be found in the Library of Congress today. Soon after Tom's project was shut down, the magazine itself also ceased publication for unknown reasons.
And what about us?
We continue driving conventional fuel-burning vehicles, wondering how, after so many decades of scientific research, no one has managed to develop a way to save even a few drops of gasoline every 62 miles.
It's worth noting that not every part of this story has been documented or independently verified. Many of the claims surrounding the engine's extraordinary fuel economy, the alleged conspiracy, and the disappearance of records remain disputed and are not supported by conclusive independent evidence.
Tom Ogle himself, however, was a real person. In 1977, he genuinely drew the attention of the American media after demonstrating a car powered by what he described as a gasoline vapor system (vapor fuel system). His vehicle was tested in front of journalists and invited experts, Shell did express interest in his invention, and Ogle tragically died in 1981 at the age of 24.
Exactly how his system worked, how effective it actually was, and whether it could have delivered the fuel economy figures that were claimed has never been conclusively established. For that reason, the story is best viewed as one of the most intriguing and mysterious chapters in American automotive history rather than a proven engineering breakthrough.