H2O FUELED CAR: PATENT PENDING

A few weeks ago, my NSTP teacher, Sir Chino, announced his verdict on what our task would be this final grading period. He gave us two topics to base our term paper on: the first was "Energy Conservation" and the other was "Alternative Fuel". After he said those words, I instantly knew what Im gonna write about. I know I won't have to eenie-mini-mini-moe between the two topics because of one person and his invention.

It all goes back years ago when I was still in high school. One time, I was watching the news with my mom about an old man who invented a car that runs on water. I remembered squinting my face secretly because I was awestruck at how exaggerated my mom reacted at the news. She was sooooo happy and proud on how intelligent the Filipinos are. She always saw much potential in Filipino inventors. 

I did not care much then, because as a teenager, I thought I had better things to do like talk on the telephone with my friends, finish the slum book my best friend kept nagging me to finish, watch Dawson's Creek, read Sweet Valley High pocket books or Archie comics....stuff like that. 

Last 2002, my sister bought an Automatic Toyota Revo for my mom and my dad. I remember during my college days when my dad used to drive me to school and then pick me up after class hours. It was nicer than having to commute, I have to admit. You don't have to squeeze yourself inside the jeepney while the maniac beside you tries to steal a touch of your "you-know-what" (right, ladies?) or because the jeepney driver is driving way toooo fast; so fast that it makes you grit your teeth and clench onto the steel bar of the ride hoping that it's not your last day on earth.

Life was good then. You wouldn't even notice that there's economic crisis. Our gas tank was always, always full. Gasoline was still cheap that we go joy riding many times in a week. 

But as time went by, situations changed. Political crisis went out of hand. Oil prices started hiking making the economic crisis go climbing a notch after another. As a result, Filipinos have to tighten their belts to cope up with the increasing demands of economic life. And it was then when people like me started to realize that issues like this should have an impact on everyone regardless of age, gender, race and such.

Years have passed and the problem is still the same. OIL. Yes, there were times when it has fluctuated down to lesser price ranges but, it still isn't the ideal. People are still burdened that they are now asking for change. Are the things the government doing really enough to truly solve this problem? What about other means to alleviate if not possible to end the oil problems?

This is where the essence of this blog post enters. The one person and his invention who crossed my mind when Sir Chino mentioned alternative fuel. The person my mom and I were watching on t.v. one time on the news when I was still a teenager.

 The main man: Mr. Daniel Dingel.

Mr. Daniel Dingel, who hails from La Union, is known around the world for his great invention. An orphan boy who was given opportunities for a predominantly technical education by Americans in Clark and Subic when he was a lad. He created this car since he was around 40 or 50 years old but it was only in the mid 1990's when the Filipino people sensationalized the issues that went along with his invention: The Daniel Dingel Water Car. 

In his website, it is stated that "this car is not a fuel-cell car. Fuel cell cars like the new Honda FCX Clarity uses hydrogen gas to produce electricity in a fuel cell, and it is this electricity that powers the car's electric motor. Also, fuel cell cars are reliant on hydrogen that is pre-extracted using costly methods.

Contrary to its name, Dingel's car does not burn water. The inventor claims to have designed a process that efficiently maximizes on-demand hydrogen extraction from the electrolysis of ordinarily-available water. It is the hydrogen gas that his car burns directly in the engine's combustion chamber. The extraction process being on-demand, Dingel's car does not store hydrogen gas onboard in quantities that pose an explosion risk. 

Dingel admits that his invention in its early years relied on around 30 cc (mL) of gasoline to start the engine and during idling, but he emphasized that those early prototypes switched to hydrogen once running. Today's prototype is a dark red Toyota Corolla that no longer needs gasoline to start the engine." http://danieldingel.com/watercar

He made a reactor that is able to separate hydrogen and oxygen to run the engine of the car. Water is then poured into the reactor and if you start the engine, it will bubble up and then oxygen and hydrogen will separate which then will make the car run. Pretty easy huh? But then the complexities are hidden and only known to the inventor, of course.

To be able for us to understand more about Mr. Dingel and really visualize how his water-fueled car works, I embedded a youtube video showing a documentary made by a person by the username of whenisnow2. 

There's a lot of people questioning this invention. According to Julius Babao in his blog post, even people from "the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) criticizes Mr. Dingel's water-powered car and have branded him as a "loony" and dismissed his invention as a hoax".

http://juliusbabao.multiply.com/journal/item/68/MEETING_DANIEL_DINGEL_WATER-POWERED_CAR_INVENTOR

Mr. Dingel also said on J. Babao's interview that he presented his invention to a number of Presidents, but only one expressed interest; Pres. Joseph Estrada. The former president was prepared to issue a memorandum that would recognize Mr. Dingel's technology for the benefit of the Filipino masses, but unfortunately, he was ousted even before he could sign the documents.

In my point of view, this is not a question of Mr. Dingel's integrity. It is about the government not being able to grant patent and recognition to his invention because of a great power play happening. The government gets big revenues from oil companies, hence, they cannot support Mr. Dingel's invention. It's all about the money. 

I think the problem here isn't whether the invention is verifiable or not. It seems that when there are people who present ideas that could help, there are no rooms for them. Our problem is not really economical. It's political.

Another is that, if an invention is perpetually functional, meaning to say, a product that people will only buy once because it functions for a very very long time, factories will lose a big amount of money. No factory will ever make a product that people will buy only once in their lives...Where the hell is the income on that?? Same goes for the water powered car. Why would the government put money in a product that will not generate income for them? As I've said, its always about the money. But even if millionaires, or billionaires for that matter, decide to fund Mr. Dingel's invention, how is it gonna be mass produced if the patent-giving body doesn't want to give patent due to conflict of interests?? (-sigh- this is sooo d@*# frustrating...hehehe.)

Further more, because Mr. Dingel stands on principle that the ones who should benefit from his invention are the Filipinos, so even if he has already acquired an international patent, he doesn't want to sell it to foreigners for mass production.You can't blame the man. It's his principle. 

So, that's why up until now, there are still no water-fueled car driven on our streets. 

It is sad because today, Mr. Dingel is now 80 years old and still fighting a chance for his invention to get recognized. I just hope the old man will see the day when his invention gets patented and mass produced. 

So for now, the Dingel Water Car has its patent.....still pending.

*In one of his latest posts, Julius Babao said that he had another meeting with Mr. Dingel and he said he might sell his invention to the international market, but they must accept his conditions that the companies that would buy his invention should employ atleast 200 Filipino workers. 

JOHN Q: A hero or a villain?

As one way of helping us understand one of the topics (Health) included in the course outline of our NSTP-CWTS subject, our instructor, Mr. Chino Arvie Santos found an opportunity for us to watch a movie entitled JOHN Q last September 9.

John Q is a story of a father struggling and desperately trying to save his son's life lying weakly in a hospital bed suffering from LVH (left ventricular hyperthrophy) which is fast leading to a lethal Congenital Heart Failure. For this cause, his son, Mike critically needs a heart transplant to be able to overcome the heed of death.

In order to push through with the surgery, Mike's name needs to be put on a donor's list which alone would cost John and his family a big amount of money. Knowing how low the odds are, John still decides to pursue with the surgery. But due to some protocols and insurance records stating that Mike is not covered by John's insurance policy as a result of technicalities, the hospital dismissed Mike's case inspite of the fact that John had already come up with 30% of the downpayment which he raised up by selling almost all of his possessions and by the kind-heartedness of his friends. Hopeless and disoriented, John thought of one last resort for his son to get medical attention; to hold the people in the ER of the hospital as hostages.

Now, there are a lot of things this film was able to depict to me as a person who belongs to a society, which I can say, has a very similar setting to that of John Q. Archibald. This film is a protest against discrimination, disparity and inequality when it comes particularly to healthcare and other social issues people are currently facing.

I wanted to make this post as formal as possible, but in the line of giving better insights, I have decided to put it in a bulleted format so that it can be more meaningful. Here are the things which the story was able to make me realize:

1. High educational background has a direct influence on what will be your future socio-economic status.

It was obviously illustrated that having a low-paying job as machinery guy in a factory did not work quite well for John and his family. There was a scene where John’s wife’s car was being towed away as a result of him not being able to pay their bills. Supposing John had a better educational degree or attainment for a more ideal job like a lawyer or a doctor, he would generate a lot of income, thus, ranking them to a higher socio-economic status.

2. Healthcare and medical services directly influences a person's socio-economic stability.

Let's take a case similar to that of John Q but somewhat a little different. A factory worker who earns a minimum wage of Php260 has 4 kids, 3 of which are schooling and 1 still a baby. He's the only one who generates income for the family because his wife is left at home tending and raising up the children. One day on his way home, he met an accident and injured his head thus, needing to undergo a CT Scan. Summing up his monthly income, we get around Php6,000. A CT Scan nowadays costs around Php5000. Considering that there are still other tests that the doctor will order and medicines that the doctor will prescribe, how will this family survive?

As we can see, the above case mirrors how getting hospitalized nowadays can create a major set-back not only in a person's economic life, but we can say almost all aspect of his life as well.

3. A person’s socio-economic status can play a role in affecting the judgement and rationale of people interacting with the individual.

Sad but true that in this world, it is not always about the VALUES but the VALUE of a person. One particular scene in the film that can illustrate this is when Hope Memorial Hospital Director, Rebecca Payne, was insisting that John and his wife, Elise, should just let their son go home and wait for his last breath because the heart transplant costs $250,000; an amount that all of them knew the Archibald family could not afford to pay. Another scene was Dr. Turner is seen being very accommodating to a wealthy man, who has undergone heart transplant, and to his wife; but how uneasy and uncomfortable he felt when John, looking like a very common man, wanted to have a conversation with him.
These scenes led me to see how some people can easily dismiss others because of the things lacking in their life especially money.

4. The government should take actions on how they could make healthcare services and medical benefits MORE favorable to people who have low and unstable income.

There are certain programs of our government which hits this issue but the pressing question is, "Are those programs enough to truly say that it has solved these kinds of problems?". Honestly, I think that there are still a lot to be done. Why? Because there are accounted cases of people resorting to selling their internal organs and other body parts just to save a loved one dying on a hospital bed or to have means to feed their family. There are reported cases of people being detained on a hospital for months because they were not able to pay their hospital bills and charges. I just hope that the government can do more to target these issues.As this film has opened the eyes of the government of the United States to improve their healthcare system especially about health insurance policies, I hope that things like this will also prompt our government to do the same.

5. Lastly, this film has shown me the true essence of being a parent to a child and the true essence of being a family.
Holding people as hostages eventhough he knows that it is a crime and almost committing suicide to donate his heart for his son to have fighting chance to survive are John Q's way of saying how determined he is not to give up and lose hope and how willing he is to die for his son which he loves deeply and dearly. If I was in his shoes, I would probably do the same.

I admire John Q's wife for being supportive to him. That's how a husband and wife should suppose to deal with trials and divine testings of family life. Eventhough John Q's means of dealing with the problem was a little off the moral scale, he prevailed over it by not losing hope and fighting for his son's life that only goes to show how John was able to maintain the tight bond and the deep foundation of his family; a family, which is in the first place, the basic unit of a society.

The question left now is......Is John Q a hero...or a villain?