In doing some research I found some really interesting documents and materials regarding the research and development of hydrogen for fuel purposes. Finding the material was one thing… but what’s really surprising is the dates on the material. The first document titled “Hydrogen For Military Purposes” is dated August 20, 1920! That’s not a typo…1920. This is an official government document from the Washington Government Printing Office that was created 90 years ago regarding hydrogen production.

My first question is what happened to the last 89 years of hydrogen fuel cell research and development? It blows my mind to think how far we could have come in 90 years economically, culturally and technology wise. How many economic disasters could have been non-existent? How much cleaner and wealthier would the world be today?

Here’s the link to the free eBook PDF document “Hydrogen For Military Purposes” and it can be read right online. Realizing that they were doing this research almost 100 years ago really changed my whole perspective on clean energy and what we should be doing today.

At the end of the ebook there are some really interesting schematics involving balloon design. Too bad they didn’t realize it was the combustible thermite coating (used to boost solid rocket fuel engines) that was an obvious main issue. Granted hydrogen is a combustible gas… however the Hindenburg incident is proof of how powerful and efficient hydrogen is. Gasoline is also flammable and dangerous. So is propane, oxygen, acetylene, butane, ethane, propylene and methane. These are gases that are all used is some part of industry including transportation, everyday.

Hydrogen got a bad rap because someone/something needed to be blamed and hydrogen was the easy target. Sure the German engineers were brilliant, there’s no doubt about that. However, it was the engineers and not the hydrogen that was at fault. One thing the Hindenburg does stand testament to, is to not coat objects (let alone a blimp) in a solid rocket fuel.

When contained and used appropriately… hydrogen is the most efficient fuel in the universe that far exceeds propane, ethanol fuel, and the disgusting/inefficient/primitive oil derivative we call gasoline. Hydrogen is the fuel that makes the stars and the sun shine and burn so brightly. Ask NASA… they’ll confirm it.

Here’s something else really interesting. Top of page 4 says “hydrogen of the greatest purity is obtained in commercial practice by the electrolysis of water, the hydrogen collecting on the negative electrode and the oxygen on the positive electrode where the current enters the cell.” This is a government document stating this 90 years ago and almost a century later, we are finally going back to the development in this simple technology. If for some stupid reason anyone was skeptical… here’s the physical evidence that this is how hydrogen is made for fuel use. The top of page 7 “Hydrogen From Water Gas“. This has to be one of the oldest documents on record using the term “water gas” or more commonly said water fuel.

Plainly said, we have missed out on ninety years of clean hydrogen fuel development. The earth, economy and species of this planet have suffered because of it. This should be a little bit of an inspiration for people to get on the hydrogen fuel (dry hho) train. Hey… there’s an idea.

Written by J.Jacobson.