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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

Certainly a good point. I wouldn't exactly call someone who buys a motor an investor unless you've have a huge collective unit of these people. I wonder how much they sell anyway/ PT Barnum was right and it could surprise us.
Chris, I think you've misunderstood Woody. He appears to be siding WITH you, not against you. Read his post again, this time with the assumption that it's satire. I think you'll find that he was indeed joking.
ckmapawatt's picture
Timothy, I was agreeing with and sharing in his frustration.
I dont mean any harm ,but if the motor worked like the blue print sellers claim it does. Dont you know that some body in china would be mass producing the motors & selling them in America.
Ah, okay, now that I re-read your reply I can see how you intended it. It is truly incredible how many people think you can buy plans for a “free energy” machine for fifty bucks, and then get offended when somebody questions why it costs a mere pittance for a device that would revolutionize physics, disrupt the world economy, and bankrupt countless Fortune 500 companies. Incidentally, if one of your hobbies is exposing scams (as mine used to be) you've probably noticed how scammers are now putting up fake debunking sites. It used to be one could find decent commentaries by adding the word "scam" to a Google search, but no longer. I've found that adding the search term "fake review" helps, but it's getting harder to out-wit the scammers. With all that cleverness it's a wonder they can't figure out a way to get rich honestly. I half suspect some of them enjoy the predation as much as the money.
If the hojo motor was legit there would be working examples powering homes, where are these on the hojo motor plans web site? Do the people selling the plans have these machine powering their homes? if not why not? it is supposed to be simple free energy. Short answer you just don't get energy from nothing. This is just another example of a perpetual motion machine scam. A short but good scientific lecture on perpetual motion is contained in the following link - http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=22154&sid=5af2200bf999c95af09ba915e49c988b
Chris, I wish I could. I tossed those plans over 30 years ago (I'll admit I'll be 60 in January). However, I can give you an idea as to what I got. Take a legitimate exploded view of any working carburetor and remove all of the specifications and capacities. This would include (1) orifice sizes, (2) fuel line lengths and sizes, (3) spring sizes and tensions, (4) vehicles it would fit, (5) reservoir capacities, (6) fuel pressures; you get the idea. Now add a few extra fuel lines, a reservoir for heating the gasoline, reroute everything from the main fuel line through the heating reservoir and back into the engine. The way it was supposed to work was to tie into the engine's cooling system to heat the fuel in the reservoir. The theory was that if you heated the fuel properly you would deliver only fumes into the combustion chamber, thus reducing gas cnsumption and, in turn, increase gas milage. As I understand it (and I'm relying solely on memory) one mechanic managed to build one of these using his experience to determine which specs would or would not work. His bottom line was that you would do just as well if you kept your vehicle properly maintained and tuned, and kept your tires properly inflated. As for getting 200 MPG, not happening. For things like this I would offer everyone keep a couple of things in mind. First and formost, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Secondly, where did you hear about or see this marvelous invention? If I wanted to "find hot singles in my area" Facebook might be okay, but not for something like a working HoJo motor. My 200 MPG carb ad was in the National Enquirer (okay, everybody get a good laugh). The prevailing thought back then was based on the so-called fuel shortage of 1973. Gas was climbing (from 33 cents to 50 cents a gallon) and people wanted to get better gas mileage. Anyone who could really build one of these carbs would have it bought out by "big oil and big auto" and then suppress it. Pretty much the same basic thoughts today; big industry will do what it needs to to protect their profits.
ckmapawatt's picture
Excellent points. I've definitely noticed the scammers have started putting up fake review sites. I suspect it is the same people behind all of these energy sites, as the strategy seems to be the same. Our only advantage is that we are in the good graces of Google. It's up to people to make sure they are reputable sites as they do research.
I like all the comments, that helps alot. to get a patent didn't this guy have to produce a working model to receive the patents? Not sure how patents work but that crossed my mind.
Chris thanks.

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