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JP wrote:
This is proving to be a fascinating subject the more I read about it. I followed-up Randy's advice about the Thomson Vitameter and there's not much on the internet, although what I did find suggested a pretty clever concept. From what I can gather, the water injection for it is still achieved through vacuum, but at the low vacuum end of the spectrum where it is more effective. If there was a pump involved I couldn't work out where it was.
The Thomson company was of the belief that use of the Vitameter would mean vehicles would only need what they termed special low-octane straight-run gasoline, which was said to be produced at considerably lower cost than cracked, blended or reformed fuel. I'm not sure exactly what all that means other than it would result in cheaper running costs.
Given the stated advantages of water injection and what looks like something relatively inexpensive to manufacture, I wonder why it didn't take off. Was it one of those things the petroleum industry killed-off? The main issue these days would be how to fit it to the carby - perhaps "T" into the distributor vacuum port. Also, I suppose another port could be machined into the carby base, but something like that is complicating things and might be better left to a specialist machinist. Anyway, I'm thinking I'll continue to investigate this some more for awhile yet. John
In the fifties there was no shortage of high octane gas and prices were not too high. So there was not much demand for water injection. Some aftermarket units were sold, and a few cars had it but it never took off.
An internet article described how Thompson Products, a large manufacturer of auto parts and accessories, spent millions developing the Vitameter in the forties.They had high hopes of selling it to auto manufacturers but it proved unnecessary once the oil companies brought out the new, high octane leaded gas. The aftermarket never took off because of the price of the device and the difficulty of getting the special fluid they sold.
At the same time they were developing other products that were much more successful like ball joint suspension. After about 10 years they dropped the Vitameter. A company that size needs to see sales in the millions of units to justify keeping something in production. Smaller companies made similar units in smaller numbers, in fact they are still available.
One disadvantage to putting them on production cars, was that you had to depend on the owner to keep the injection tank filled with the proper mix of alcohol and water. This was barely acceptable on a performance car, presumably sold to a savvy driver who took care of his car. Not acceptable on a car sold to Mrs. Peasy Weasy the garden club matron.
The Vitameter had a vacuum operated valve. High vacuum closed the valve, low vacuum opened it. This is how they matched the flow of fluid to the engine's needs. Further details in this article, as well as a couple of similar devices.
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