Usually these urban legends allege a conspiracy theory that the oil industry seeks to suppress the technology that turns water to gasoline.
Franch took money from a number of small investors who read about his claims in the National Tattler or a similar[clarification needed] tabloid publication.
Between 1992 and 2007 a businessman called Tim Johnston managed to garner over $100 million from investors, principally in Australia and New Zealand, for the promotion of a "magic pill that cut emission and made fuel last longer".
Despite the illusory nature of the product, the company had attracted high-profile promoters and investors from the Australian government, armed forces, sport and show business.
The claims discussed here do not address the source of carbon needed to make up the balance, and instead propose that just a small amount of X would suffice, which is impossible due to conservation of mass.
The storyline of the 1943 Laurel and Hardy film, Jitterbugs, revolves around a con man (Bob Bailey) selling gas pills during the fuel rationing days of WWII.
In the 1949 motion picture Free For All, Robert Cummings starred as a scientist who claimed to have invented a pill that turned water into gasoline.
The 1940s television/radio show People Are Funny performed a stunt in which an unsuspecting crowd at Hollywood and Vine were sold "Atom Pills" at a quarter apiece.
Elton allegedly demonstrated to government representatives in 1917 a pill that costs 2 cents that can turn 10 gallons of water into a fuel that can power an auto engine.
In E.L. Doctorow's historical novel Ragtime, Henry Ford must deal with a man claiming to have invented a water-to-gasoline pill; possibly a reference to Louis Enricht.