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Hojo Motor is a Scam!

The Hojo Motor is a scam.  If you purchased the Hojo Motor plans before reading this post, I'm sorry, you got scammed.  If you purchase the Hojo Motor plans after reading this post, you are dumb.  Plain and simple.  I'm sorry to use harsh words here, but sometimes it's necessary to be blunt in order to get your point across.

We've been down this path before, with the Magniwork scam.  In fact, Magniwork has been our most popular post, and has led us to post Renewable Energy Scams.  As you can see from that post, there is no shortage of scams out there trying to take advantage of the energy ignorant.

I don't care that on the web page for the Hojo plan they show some patents (see the bottom of this post for information regarding said patents) for a some kind of magnetic perpetual motion machine.  I'm not even going to get into the discussion on the laws of thermodynamics.  What I will tell you is if some kind of free energy generator was real, I would be the first person to have it.  You wouldn't hear about some free energy generator from some Google ad, you would hear about it because the President is talking about it on the world stage.  It would be the biggest breakthrough in the 21st century.  And you think you are going to buy some plans for $49.97?  (side note: ClickBank sells these plans along with many other scams, and they should be fined by the Federal Trade Commission)

Hank Mills wrote a great "Letter to Hojo Motor Plan Scammers" in which he stated:

Howard Johnson was a brilliant inventor. You got that one fact correct. However, his technologies were never fully developed, and were still very experimental when he died. Even if he was able to create motion in an experimental test rig (after hundreds or thousands of hours of work), it was not ready to power a home, an appliance, or even a very light load like a light bulb. The idea that someone could take plans for his device, and build a system capable of powering their home, is totally absurd. Unless of course, they had tens of thousands of dollars to spend, months to experiment just to make a motor self-sustain, and even more time and money to do the research and development needed to do anything practical with it.

Don't think we know what we're talking about?  Fine, buy the plans and make a fool of yourself.  For everyone else out there, focus your time on conserving energyproducing real clean energy, and living more sustainably.

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Regarding the Patent Claims, below is what I received from a friend who is a patent attorney:

First, if he got a patent on this "secret" invention that was just released, then it couldn't have been secret, since getting a patent means publicly disclosing the invention.  Patents don't certify that free energy works, the patents simple certify that his magnetic motor works as a magnetic motor

Regarding the patents: I"ve pasted the first independent claim of each of the patents so you can start learning what patents really cover.  The claims are the legal bounds of the patent and define what the inventor is actually protecting.  As you will so, there is no language in any of these claims that says free energy, pertetual motion, etc.

4,151,431 patent expired in 1999.
It Claims: A permanent magnet motor comprising, in combination, a stator track defining a track direction and having first and second sides and composed of a plurality of track permanent magnets each having first and second poles of opposite polarity, said magnets being disposed in side-by-side relationship having a spacing between adjacent magnets and like poles defining said track sides, an elongated armature permanent magnet located on one of said track sides for relative movement thereto and in spaced relationship to said track side wherein an air gap exists between said armature magnet and said track magnets, said armature magnet having first and second poles of opposite polarity located at the opposite ends of said armature magnet defining the length thereof, the length of said armature magnet being disposed in a direction in general alignment with the direction of said track, the spacing of said armature magnet poles from said track associated side and the length of said armature magnet as related to the width and spacing of said track magnets in the direction of said track being such as to impose a continuous force on said armature magnet in said general direction of said track.

(THIS IS NOT CLAIMING A FREE ENERGY DEVICE, just a specific, very narrowly claimed type of motor)

4,877,983 Patent - expired in 2009
It Claims:
In combination with a movable armature, means for guiding movement of the armature along a predetermined path and a permanent armature magnet having magnetic poles of opposite polarity spaced from each other along said path to establish a magnetic field of limited extent movable with the armature and magnetic stator means for establishing a stationary magnetic flux zone along said path, the improvement comprising flux emitting surfaces of one polarity mounted on the stator means on opposite sides of said path for limiting said flux zone through which said path extends and means mounting the permanent armature magnet on the armature with the poles thereof orientated relative to said flux emitting surfaces on the stator means for unidirectionally propelling the armature along said path through the limited zone in response to magnetic interaction between the movable magnetic field and the limited flux zone, said magnetic stator means including a plurality of magnetic gate assemblies fixedly spaced from each other along said path and respectively establishing stationary magnetic fields, each of said gate assemblies including a plurality of interconnected bar magnets substantially bordering said limited flux zone exposing pole faces of opposite polarity in parallel spaced planes intersected by said path, and magnetic means connected to said interconnected bar magnets exposing one of the flux emitting surfaces of said one polarity perpendicular to said parallel planes for magnetic interaction of the stationary magnetic fields.

(AGAIN, NOT CLAIMING PERPETUAL MOTION, just a different motor configuration)

5,402,021 will expire 2015
It Claims:
A magnetic propulsion system comprising:

a vehicle having a rigidly attached magnetic armature, said magnetic armature including a first series of magnets positioned across said vehicle and extending generally from one lateral side of the vehicle to another lateral side of the vehicle, all of the magnets in said first series of magnets being generally parallel to one another;

a first magnetic wall disposed laterally adjacent said vehicle and extending longitudinally along a desired direction of vehicle travel, said first magnetic wall comprising a second series of magnets, each of the magnets in said second series having a particular size and a North-to-South axis pointing in the same direction as the desired direction of vehicle travel, each of said permanent magnets of said particular size in said second series being separated from the next successive permanent magnet in said second series by a thinner magnet, each of said thinner magnets having a pole-to-pole length which is shorter than the lateral width of said magnets of a particular size in said second series, said thinner magnets further having a North-to-South axis pointing perpendicular to the North-to-South axis of said magnets of a particular size in said second series and pointing generally toward a vehicle side of the first magnetic wall; and

a second magnetic wall disposed generally parallel to said first magnetic wall and laterally adjacent to said vehicle but opposite from said first magnetic wall, said second magnetic wall comprising a third series of magnets, each of said magnets in said third series having said particular size and a North-to-South axis pointing in an opposite direction from the desired direction of vehicle travel, each of the permanent magnets in said third series being separated from the next successive permanent magnet of said particular size in said third series by a thinner magnet, each of said thinner magnets in the second magnetic wall having a pole-to-pole length which is shorter than the lateral width of said magnets of a particular size in said third series, said thinner magnets in the second magnetic wall further having a North-to-South axis pointing in the same general direction as the North-to-South axis of the thinner magnets in the first magnetic wall;

wherein said first and second magnetic walls create magnetic fields which exert propelling forces on said armature and thereby cause the vehicle to accelerate in the desired direction of vehicle travel.

(claim and EXTREMELY narrow vehicle with some sort of magnetic propulsion motor, nothing more)

It is annoying how many people get up in arms about patents when they just take for granted what someone who is clearly also not a patent person tells them.  Always always always read the claims of the patent before making any comments about what the patent supposedly covers.

Click here to learn why perpetual motion free energy machines don't work.  Make any comments regarding perpetual motion on the post in the link.  You can make HoJo scam comments below.

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Comments

I aggree with Max. When I seen a picture of the book with the plains, I thought it looked thick and complicated,and I don't have the time or training to put this together. The next thing I wanted to know is,how much is it already put together and working? So I surched for a sit that had it for sale and ready to use. Then I stumbled on to about three websites that were "unbiased" reviews. All of the sites were sales traps from the same people. If they spent all this money on web sites and adds, don't you think they would take some money and build there own product and make it available for people who don't want to do it thereselves? Also with all the people who could build it and sell it if it worked, why don't they? There would be a boat load of these on ebay. There is something wrong with this. Nothing is that much of a secret on the web. If something came out today that worked by next week ebay would be overloaded with people selling them. That is why they sell plains. It is legal to sell plains for anything, but you cant sell a worthless product. Thanks for putting up this forum. It helped me feel better for having my suspitions. Thanks!!!!
When I first saw the HoJo Motor ad on Facebook my first thought was, "This has to be a scam. If it really worked why would it be advertised on a Facebook side panel?" It reminds me of the "200 MPG carburetor" being hyped after the so-called oil shortage in the 1970s. I was gullible enough to buy the plans. What I got was a pamphlet of line-art drawings with no specs of any kind. I showed them to a mechanic friend of mine and he said, "Man, you got taken. Nobody could build this." Okay, first and last time I ever got taken by a "too good to be true" scam. Now I research everything before I consider any purchase. I'm glad there are folks who are willing to share their insites with those of us who aren't as knowledgeable.
Chris, I've looked at this and other green issues for over 30 years. I agree with you 100% and don't know whether to praise you for the methodical way that you disperse info to irrational (I'm sure most are intelligent and seeking "truth") people or to give you fatherly advise (I'm officially an old guy) and tell you you are foolish for trying to convince them. Let them spend their money and continue in their deception. The world waits for dreamers that have flexible enough thinking to not be bamboozled. I look at it like they are buying a science kit for middle schoolers. It is interesting and they can learn something from it - they won't power their house of course, but maybe they will be a little wiser if they spend their time and money on the HOJO. Thanks for this discussion.
ckmapawatt's picture
I'm working on a post for Monday where I can describe why a system like this is impossible, without invoking the laws of physics. It's tough to break down technical issues to the bare bones, but I'll give it a shot!
ckmapawatt's picture
Jerry, would you mind sending a copy of the plans to info@mapawatt.com?
The main reason scams need to be exposed to the light of day is that each investor who falls for the scam is one less investor for a legitimate energy project. In the 1980s, there was abundant investment capital for inventors to bring their legitimate inventions to the market. During the 1990s, however, financial bubbles blown by the central bankers of the world made it harder for inventors to get investment capital. When an investor can get double-digit returns by investing in a Wall Street bubble, why take a chance on investing in something real that might not pay off? The situation has only gotten worse since then (which is part of the reason why we're in a depression right now). Then, on top of that negative factor, we have scams which suck investment capital up and convince investors that they will never be able to tell the difference between something legitimate and something that's a fraud. And, the government regulators, instead of going after truly illegal scams, go after legitimate businesses with expensive regulations and securities lawsuits, which cuts off even more investment capital. We're going to need a complete collapse in our financial system before it can get reformed, something I'm looking forward to happening in the next three years. Once the system hits bottom and the financial crooks get put in prison, we can do some great things in terms of non-fossil energy.
What amazes me is that people actually believe that you can get free energy. Look at what is probable not what is possible. And do we really believe that the energy companies could keep something like this quiet? And if they are trying, they aren't doing a very good job. There are very few secrets anymore. Stop being paranoid people.
Now if you want to know about a truly interesting engine that works, Google "Sterling Engine". No, it doesn't generate electricity from nothing but it does use virtually any heat source. This is an external combustion engine.
I teach physics to non-majors at NCSU in hopes that my courses will help save them from falling for scams like the HoJo motor, and the many more similar frauds out there in abundance.
FIRST TIME ON THIS WEB SITE SHOULD'T BE TO HARD TO PUT THE PLANS ON SOME WEB SITE SO ANYONE COULD GET A COPY OF THEM FREE...I'M A LITTLE SURPRIZED THAT THIS HAS NOT BEEN DONE ALREADY...WOULD SOLVE EVERYONES PROBLEM ON WEATHER IT WOULD WORK OR NOT..SEEMS SIMPLE TO ME...WJ

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