Californian Sam Leach knew that hydrogen was a winner. Near the time of the first Middle East Oil crisis in the early 1970s, Leach convinced gullible American investors to give him US$1-million on the strength of his claim that he had built a car that used ordinary water as a fuel. His "invention" used electrolysis assisted by his secret catalyst. He claimed to be able to decompose water into oxygen and hydrogen, and then use the hydrogen as a fuel to run the engine and generate more electricity than he started with.  read more » [2]