Delighted. This deserves wider publicity.

My post was a critique of the County Times article where they parrot a Tesco press release and fail to question any of the “facts” in it. Tesco are well known for their propaganda and for distortion and manipulation of the truth, I feel it is the job of newspapers to question the information they are given for printing and if they don’t the very least they can do is call it what it is, advertising, and charge for it.

I have a number of criticisms of the anti-Machynlleth-Tesco campaign myself, however one thing they are not short of is facts.

You say that most residents of Machynlleth are in favour of a Tesco but where is your evidence? Most people I talk to are very much against it, maybe I’m just talking to the wrong people. They do all agree that certain local services are poor and that the Co-Op is poorly run but they do not see the solution as being a massive supermarket.

Where is your evidence that retailers like Wil Lloyd Williams (the butcher) will not suffer as a result of having a Tesco on their doorstep? You say his superior product will see him through, but is this opinion based on any evidence? There is a lot of evidence that where a large supermarket opens the local independent stores tend to suffer greatly.

As for the baker’s superior product… I must be thinking of a different baker to you.

Incidentally I am pretty sure Wil the butcher is himself not in favour of a Tesco in Machynlleth. Have a watch of this (heavily biased?) report:

Also, are you sure you wish to say that all of the opinions all people who move into any community where they were not born are not relevant to the indigenous community? If this were true then you would agree, I’m sure, that people from Wales who move to London should not be allowed to vote for London Mayor? Because when put it like that it sounds like racism to me.

Surly the strength of the collective knowledge of a community is in its diversity? The more diverse our backgrounds and experiences the more informed our collective decisions can be. Those people who you feel are in Machynlleth escape their previous environment may have some relevant experience to share with those who have lived in Machynlleth all their lives.

Where do you draw this “locals” line, anyway? I have lived in Machynlleth for one-third of my life, longer than anywhere else I have lived. I consider it home even though I don’t live there right now.

Where I do live right now is San Francisco. Here, unlike just about every other part of the USA I have been to, local planing and zoning laws keep out the big retailers. Also the diversity of cultures here is vast. The result is an extraordinary diversity of small shops and local amenities.

I’ll leave you with a quote I feel is very relevant; “Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it”. The lessons from the history of big supermarket chains moving into small tows, and specifically the lies manipulations of Tesco, are there to be learned if you would only look them up.

Idris Jones

I seriously mean you no disrespect, but every single thing you say in your comment is nonsense. I don’t know where to begin in pointing out how wrong you are about everything, you are talking rubbish, making statements that have no foundation whatsoever in reality.

Put down “Politics in Healing” (Burzynski is a dangerous quack) and pick up a simple physics text book and look up “conservation of energy” and then tell me again that “the mechanical resistance from the generator to the engine is constant. It doesn’t fluctuate according to how much electricity is being produced. And the power required to drive the electrolysis that produces the HHO is coming from the battery.”

thanks for a clear explanation that even I could understand. Just been reading a lot about HHO. Seems a lot of hype and confusion. Yet underneath there seems a core of credible amateur and professionals who are making real world claims.

Some seem to say that using HHO improves power and hence fuel consumption and cleans the emissions.

My understanding is that the power required to drive the electrolysis that produces the HHO is not taking power from the engine since the engine will turn the generator regardless of what electricity is being produced. I.e. the generator charges the battery that turns round and says “whoa mate that’s enough for me I’m full up”. Where does this excess electricity go? I know that if you drive with all electric’s on then this would drain the battery but as long as the engine is turning and everything is in good order the battery should be continually topped up by the generator. And the mechanical resistance from the generator to the engine is constant. It doesn’t fluctuate according to how much electricity is being produced. And the power required to drive the electrolysis that produces the HHO is coming from the battery.

The gains in power that come from the HHO are actually coming from the fact that the split water (hydrogen & oxygen) improves the combustion process. This is what I found. The fuel is not a gas but a vapour made up of droplets. Droplets burn from the outside in. The fuel is set on the rich side by manufacturers to allow for different operating conditions even with the help of electronic management. (That’s why modern cars have catalytic convertors)

Diesel and petrol burn slower than hydrogen or oxygen gases. And gas molecules are much smaller, i.e. the hydrogen and oxygen molecules are tiny in comparison to the fuel molecules and burn much faster. The example I read was throwing a large piece of coal on a fire or pulverising it first. Same substance but in the latter case burns much much quicker.

The actual time available for the combustion is not very long. Milliseconds I suppose. Anyway, the hydrogen flame travels through the mixture like a runner running through a forest torching it as he goes. So the fuel furthest away from the flame front doesn’t have to hang around waiting for the burning fuel to reach it as the burning hydrogen will ignite it way before it’s kindred burning fuel molecules get to it. Coupled to this the extra oxygen in the mix in a gas form helps the combustion process.

So the outcome is a much cleaner more efficient combustion and cleaner emissions. However, a modern cars engine management system checks the exhaust emissions and notices that it is cleaner, i.e. the engine must be running leaner, therefore the management system enriches the fuel mixture and all the gains are lost.

Hence the need for the EFIE (Electronic Fuel Injection Enhancer) that tricks the management system into not enriching the fuel and the gains are regained.

So the HHO is actually a fuel additive but a very good one. If the claims are genuine a decent HHO system can increase considerably the fuel efficiency and hence mpg of a diesel/petrol engine. The power required to split the water by electrolysis is much smaller than the power gained - not from the energy in the HHO per se - but by the fact that the actual combustion process is so dramatically improved. Before writing this it never occurred to me why we have catalytic convertors but now I get it. Because the fuel is not being burnt efficiently enough. If the fuel was to be burnt really efficiently then the exhaust would be much cleaner. This is also something the HHO enthusiasts claim.

Finally, I am reading a book called “Politics in Healing” about the suppression of medical breakthroughs in the USA by their own medical establishment which is a real eye opener. So I suspect that likewise there will be vested interests in keeping the status quo with regard to fuel technology. Not least the tax man since a 25% reduction in fuel consumption would really hit the governments revenues, yet also lower our import bill.

So I don’t think it is just about technology but also politics and business.

Finally, as Karl Popper pointed out the laws of physics are descriptive and not prescriptive. Science kneels to Nature and not vice versa. So even though the universe is impossible here we are!

Anyway thanks for your clear exposition that has helped me a lot.

Michael