Eye-witness accounts suggest that US inventor Stanley Meyer has developed an electric cell which will split ordinary tap water into hydrogen and oxygen with far less energy than that required by a normal electrolytic cell.

In a demonstration made before Professor Michael Laughton, Dean of Engineering at Mary College, London, Admiral Sir Anthony Griffin, a former controller of  the British Navy, and Dr Keith Hindley, a UK research chemist. Meyer's cell, developed at the inventor's home in Grove City, Ohio, produced far more hydrogen/oxygen mixture than could have been expected by simple electrolysis.

Where normal water electrolysis requires the passage of current measured in amps, Meyer's cell achieves the same effect in milliamps. Furthermore, ordinary tap water requires the addition of an electrolyte such as sulphuric acid to aid current conduction; Meyer's cell functions at greatest efficiency with pure water.

According to the witnesses, the most startling aspect of the Meyer cell was that it remained cold, even after hours of gas production.

Meyer's experiments, which he seems to be able to perform to order, have earned him a series of US patents granted under Section 101. The granting of a patent under this section is dependent on a successful demonstration of the invention to a Patent Review Board.

Meyer's cell seems to have many of the attributes of an electrolytic cell except that it functions at high voltage, low current rather than the other way around. Construction is unremarkable. The electrodes --- referred to as "excitors" by Meyer --- are made from parallel plates of stainless steel formed in either flat or concentric topography. Gas production seems to vary as the inverse of the distance between them; the patents suggest a spacing of 1.5 mm produces satisfactory results.