New-York tribune., 1918-05-05
The Amazing Tale Of a
Cent-a-Gallon Sorcerer
Facts Near Facts About Enrht His Fluid
That Makes the Wheels Go Round Has Interested Two
and Is Said to Have Been fought by Big Financial Interests


for time convinced of its revolu-
tionary merits. He had openly referred
to Louis Enricht as a great man. 1t
was said he had even made magnifi-
cent offer for the secret, planning per-
haps to publish the full recipe as a
benefaction to motordom. Maybe the
offer wasn't magnificent enough; maybe
Ford suffered change of heart and of
mind and withdrew it.
He and Enricht parted. They were
not friends. Ford sued Enricht for the
return of the fivver which had figured
in the demonstrations and experiments.
Officers of the law, under due process,
removed the fivver from Enricht's
premises. The old inventor Immediately
began action against his erstwhile
crony. 1t seemed he had substituted
for the Ford engine one Of his own, so
the replevined hivver wasn't really
Ford's property at all.
And in that slither of litigation En-
RIGHT dropped out Of sight once more.
New York would have nothing further
to do with him, for New York dread
fully fears being taken in. That is
why, likely enough, its blase air.
Enricht, however, went on as before,
working in his laboratory through the
mornings, riding abroad in his sweet
the evenings taking his simple pleasure
at the movies.
Some weeks, or some months, passed
then enter B. F. Yoakum.
Enricht and Yoakum had been neigh
bors. Yoakum was the rich man Of
Farmingdale. He owned a big estate
there. A great house on top Of n
thicklywooded and strictly-private hill
was his summer home. Perhaps he and
the inventor just drifted together.
Quien sabe?
At any rate the National Motor Power
Company was organized, with Enricht
and Yoakum in control. To the COM
pany Enricht assigned his secret in ex-
change for stock. Now he says that
stock was all he got-and all the COM
pany had. He insists that the whole
capital of the enterprise lies in the
value of the secret it had to sell.
Busy on
Other Things
Enricht seemed glad to leave all
business matters to his new man Of
affairs. He turned from "cent-a-gal
lon-gas" to other inventions, to his
uck-hardening concretes, his ex
plosives and his bombs, content that
Yoakum should work out by himself
the destinies Of national motor power
By that time the newspapers had had
their fill of Enricht. 1t was accepted
that he had nothing. AS a novelty in
the news he had served we'll enough.
AS one persisting in vain pretension
he was a bore. He was generally
"passed up"
AS he had fallen out with Ford, so
Enricht fell out with Yoakum. Tenn
permanent maybe, and yet it was sig
niicantly remarked that the inventor
had habit of falling out with people
just at that moment when there was
due full revelation of The secret
In this case formal offer appeared
to have been made by the British gov
ernment after protracted series of
tests. .Enricht himself says the offer
was a million and half. Yoakum's
suit, filed Immediately after the break,
was based largely on Enricht's refusal
to consider the proposition.
1t was because Of secret sympathy
with Germany, the plaintiff alleged,
that Enricht would not deal with Great
Britain.
The affidavits fled at Mineola were
most interesting, startlingly so. They
rccited how in months Of demonstra-
tions in the laboratories of the Auto
mobile Club Of America Enricht had
run engines he had never seen before,
engines that could not possibly have
been tampered with, on his fuel. Ex-
perts had watched every move he made
Moreover, it was asserted that the
fluid was no longer the complete mys-
terry of the early days. Yoakum had
kept pressing Enricht, demanding as
his business associate his closest con-
| fdence. He insisted that the secret
should become the property of the Ma
tional Motor Power Company. And in
measure Enricht had given way. He
had made public-at least within the
circle in which sat Yoakum and the
British experts-a list of the ingredi-
ents entering into his compound, with
holding only one element.
The Mysterious
Little Bottle
The ingredients were, as he said,
common. The experts had bought
them and compounded them, leaving it
for the inventor to complete the fuel
by shaking into each tankful a few
drops of liquid from little private
bottle that never left his possession.
Without this addition the compound
gave some slight evidence of motive
force. An explosion or two could be
obtained with it-or so said the aff
davits. The extra drops invariably did
the work. Stirred into the mixture
they made the fuel seem a perfect
substitute for gasolene. There were