He believed that for a fraction of the investment in the development of internal combustion engines, modern small-scale steam, externally fired engines, could prove to be of far greater efficiency and utility, exhibit better combustion characteristics, have lower emissions, greater fuel efficiency, higher torque and better power-to-weight ratios.

His commitment saw him nearly single-handedly attempt to launch a steam driven car industry in Australia in the 1970s, an effort that ultimately sent him bankrupt.

[1] Pritchard was 12 years old when his father explained the operation of a steam engine to him,[2] and by 14 he had worked out an infinitely variable gear device for his bicycle.

[4] After 10 years of design and experimentation, the father and son team had bench tested their new 90-degree V-twin double-acting uniflow type engine and installed on the tray of a 5-ton Bedford truck.

[11] After multiple minor advancements in the engine design, by 1971 the Pritchard Ford Falcon had undergone over 1,200 miles of road tests around Melbourne.

[12] Pancoastal had already put down a $20,000 option payment for the possibility of producing the engine in the United States, and other experts from the US and Japan had visited the Caulfield workshop.

[13] Pritchard Steam Power received a boost on 6 March 1972 when it signed contracts with Pancoastal PXP that provided an immediate $130,000 to continue development, and a third of the royalties on all engines sold.

Later that month, Richard Alexander gave an extensive outline of the Pritchard Power system for Automobiles at a Public Hearing on Alternatives to the Gasoline-powered Internal Combustion Engine before the Panel on Environmental Science and Technology, United States Senate.

[15] In November 1972, Pancoastal organised for Ted Pritchard, Michael Edwards and the Ford Falcon to fly to Thousand Oaks, near Los Angeles, USA Demonstrations were given to news media, to Representatives of State and Federal bodies interested in exhaust emissions, to motor car manufacturers including Ford, General Motors, American Motors, Leyland, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Toyota and Alfa Romeo, and to John Deere, Aerojet Liquid Rocket, Sierra Club and the United Auto Workers Union.

After further testing confirmed that the exhaust contained no unburnt hydrocarbons at the tail pipe it was declared that the car passed with "flying colours", with total emissions capable of meeting Euro 2 standards that were not introduced until 25 years later in 1999.

While they waited for engines to be delivered, the specially-designed modern Pritchard car – based on Holden Torana running gear – was being constructed in Oakleigh, Victoria.

A letter supporting the development had also been sent to the Federal Government by Queensland sugar cane farmers, who saw benefit in the production of alcohol to run future steam-powered cars.

[52] "An American university, which calls the machine 'the most advanced steam device we know of,' has asked for straw-alcohol-fuelled prototypes, for testing in Third World countries.

[55] In May 1980, the case of the Pritchard steam car was again taken up by a politician, this time Mr. Vince Lester from the National Party, Member for Peak Downs in Queensland.

He pointed to the use of blended liquid from powdered coal and alcohol from sugar cane as two State resources that could benefit from the development of the steam car.

Ted found work as a lecturer at RMIT teaching, among other things, the principles of mechanical engineering and the finer points of thermodynamics.

This position allowed him to continue researching efficient forms of modern steam power, and to remind his students that the perfect working fluid is still water.

[1] In 1997, Ted Pritchard made a submission to the Inquiry into Urban Air Pollution in Australia, again promoting the low emissions possible from modern steam power plants.

When he finished the drawings for the S5000, Pritchard declared that he had finally done for steam engines what IBM did for computers, "made them small and personal", – reducing them in scale and increasing their power-to-weight ratio to the point where they could become commonly available and useful technology.

[1] At the time the first prototype of the S5000 was being made by a Gillion Group subsidiary, MTN Tooling in Bentleigh under an agreement with a new company Ted had formed in 2006, Pritchard Power Systems Ltd.[62] This company eventually became Uniflow Power Ltd that has proceeded to secure wide-ranging global patents over aspects of the core technology that Ted designed.