THIS refers to news item ‘Demo of water-fuelled car astonishes experts’ (July 27). I would like to share with readers that way back in the early 1940s, just before the end of World War II, a similar experiment/demonstration was successfully held and went into operation in the former state of Hyderabad (Deccan), India. As a reaction to extreme scarcity and rationing of petrol, Mahboob Ali, a pioneering former director of wireless and broadcasting and son of eminent scholar Maulvi Chiragh Ali, invented a gadget that made cars run on water and steam. It was nicknamed ‘Gas Plant’.

The truth of its success was confirmed by the fact that even the Nizam, the ruler of Hyderabad state, himself had the ‘Gas Plant’ fitted on his royal family cars. It was also officially used on some Hyderabad Road Transport buses.

But before Mahboob Ali could actually convert this project into a commercial enterprise, the war ended in 1945. Normal supply of petrol was restored and made the invention redundant at the time.

I congratulate engineer Waqar Ahmad for his effort and hope he will get all the encouragement and support from the related quarters in Pakistan.

SYED ALI AHMED Karachi

Automobile companies

IT is common scientific knowledge that water when electrolysed yields hydrogen and oxygen gas. This gas, known as HHO, is supposedly supplied to the engine as fuel.

The point of contention here is that this is being put forward as a new invention.

A cursory search on the Internet reveals that this so-called invention is nothing new. In fact, this idea has been around for a long, long time.

Do-it-Yourself guides and kits are freely available online for anybody to buy. That is the reason for so many recent claims on the subject. Therefore, claiming it as a new invention is basically wrong.

What I learnt from literature available is that hydrogen thus obtained is used in conjunction with gasoline boosting its efficiency and not all alone. Even a small such enrichment of the fuel with hydrogen will give large saving in petrol.

Since nothing of the process has been disclosed so far in our case, I am not going to criticise or support it. But I would advise that since this is an automobile part the correct way to go about this is to take this device to the experts which in this case are the automobile companies. Without their endorsement nobody in the public is going to use it in their vehicle no matter how good or who is supporting it.

We all know that CNG did not become successful until Suzuki started supplying it with their vehicles. One thing in its favour is that it doesn’t appear to be very expensive to fabricate.

I would also advise the government not to be embarrassed by supporting this device blindly but let the claim be verified by relevant experts and authorities and then take the next step.

SHAHAB HASAN Karachi