Posted for "Gary Casey" <glcasey@adelphia.net>:
<<Yesterday I received the Harbor Freight catalog in the mail.  On page 38
top row there is a device called "Fuel Master", item number 36098-3RTH.  It
is a magnet in two parts that you strap around your fuel line. Is this smoke and mirrors or does this thing really work?  I do not
understand the  physics in this idea.  Anyone know the answer?>>

100% smoke and mirrors.  A very long time ago I actually ran tests on this
for my employer so we could refute the data.  There is nothing there at all.
Then another "inventor" came to us and said the reason the other system
didn't work was that it used both poles of the magnet and he had a
"mono-pole" magnet that only magnetized the fuel one way......At that time
we (GM) were testing everything that was proposed just in case "Standard Oil
bought up all the patents for the 100 mpg carburetor so they could sell more
gas."  Mostly just so we would have an answer when some senator called.  My
favorite was a car that ran on "100% EGR".  The inventor had rigged a valve
on the exhaust and he could close it off completely and the car would keep
running, thereby running on only its own exhaust and not burning any fuel.
Of course, it would only do it at idle because "there was still some work to
be done."  We borrowed the car, welded up all the leaks in the exhaust
system and the engine promptly quit.  What a waste of time.

Gary Casey
ES project