Answer to the fuel crisis (maybe) can be all yours

Would you like to own the rights to the technology that will free this planet from having to rely on oil -- foreign or domestic?

It’s for sale! On EBay!

The inventor, Ron Meritt, began offering it Monday in an auction that will last until May 20. He has put no reserve, or minimum price, on the sale.

That means if you bid $5 and everyone else bids less, you become the owner of the Meritt International Pollution-Free Alternative Fuel Motor Conversion Kit, which, when installed on any gasoline-powered, internal-combustion motor in cars, trucks, boats or lawn mowers, promises to allow it to run on just about any gas or liquid, including water.

You also get all pending patents, trade secrets and the working prototype engine. You don’t get a set of matching steak knives, but then, once you control the technology to run engines on water, you probably could afford to have someone cut the steak up for you, don’t you think?

What adds to the novelty is that the conversion kit was invented by the same man who brought us the portable video player for cars, the one in a backpack that can be slung over the front seat so the kids can watch their favorite movies.

Meritt says the video player has outsold the systems now offered in cars -- the ones with a screen that flips down from the ceiling -- by 10 to 1.

Of course, skeptics may wonder: If Toyota, General Motors and Ford can’t come up with technology to burn water in a gas engine, how can the inventor of the car video player do it?

“My answer to that is, why didn’t Toyota, GM or Ford come up with the idea for the portable video player for cars? Even the smartest guys in the world don’t think of everything,” Meritt said.

“I’ve taken the technology as far as I can go. I have the choice to either get investors and do it myself or hand it off to others, and I’d rather hand it off,” said Meritt, who admits to making so much money off the portable video player that he’ll never have to worry where his next creme brulee is coming from.

“But if you ask, ‘Is the technology ready for tomorrow?’ The answer is no. It needs more [research and development] before it can become commercially viable,” he said, and he wants to turn it over to someone willing to do that.

Meritt said while he still will come up with an invention or two of his own, he is turning his attention to bankrolling other inventors.

He said that with the conversion kit, an engine can burn a limitless variety of fuels -- solid or liquid or a combination of both. How it works, of course, is the secret that only the highest bidder will learn.

“Sooner or later we’re going to tap out the earth’s resources. You can’t produce millions of barrels of oil a day before the supply runs dry. If the supplies dry up, we better have a Plan B,” he said.

But selling at no reserve is a gamble.

“I understand I’m taking a chance. I just hope that it gets in the right place, a university or think tank. That’s why I’m using EBay, because it allows me a chance to get the word out to the world,” Meritt said.

Before you ask: Meritt knows fellow inventor Ron Popeil, but isn’t offering the technology to him -- unless, of course, he bids on EBay.

“Popeil is more into mass merchandise, the Pocket Fisherman and cooker type things.”

For those interested in the auction and/or the kit, www.merittinternational.com/ pollutionfree provides details.