AquaCure Research
A Short History

This page traces the different names HydrOxy has gone by over the past sixty years, from the original 1967 patent filing through the terms still used today, including why AquaCure continues to call it Brown’s Gas. Much of this history involves other inventors and researchers beyond George Wiseman, so unlike the rest of this section, it’s told from AquaCure’s perspective rather than his own.

The Original Patent

Brown’s Gas was first patented in the 1960s. The late William Rhodes, of Phoenix, Arizona, was awarded U.S. Patent 3,310,483 for a “Multicell OxyHydrogen Generator” on March 21, 1967. He called it “single-ducted gas.”

Yull Brown

Not much happened with the gas commercially until the late Yull Brown, then living in Australia, patented his own version of the machine in the 1970s and began commercializing it. He spent the next 30 years of his life traveling the world, selling the technology, and developing variations of his machines.

Yull Brown was particularly effective in the Orient, where China, in the middle of a massive industrial buildup, adopted Brown’s Gas as a standard welding gas rather than developing acetylene infrastructure. During most of that period, the gas became widely known by his name: Brown’s Gas.

HydrOxy

After Yull Brown’s success, several people began building their own variations of Brown’s Gas machines, many giving the gas its own brand name in an attempt to claim unique market share, even though it’s fundamentally the same gas.

The first of these variations was HydrOxy, coined by Alvin Crosby of New Zealand, a former distributor of Yull Brown’s machines who was unhappy with the original design and built an improved version.

Why We Still Call It Brown's Gas

I’ve been working with Brown’s Gas since 1986. I use the name “Brown’s Gas” to honor Yull Brown, whose 30 years of effort are the reason the world knows about this gas at all, and because keeping one consistent name for the same gas reduces confusion.

My version of a Brown’s Gas electrolyzer was half the weight, half the size, and produced more gas using half the electricity of earlier designs. It was also simpler, more manufacturable, and safer to use.

HHO

The name HHO entered public use through the late Denny Klein, shortly before the sharp rise in oil prices in 2007-2008. Klein was featured on Fox News around that time, which gave the gas significant publicity under the HHO name.

One of the most effective uses of the gas is combustion enhancement, typically a 25% reduction in fuel consumption when added to an engine. When Ozzie Freeman published an eBook on how to apply HHO to a vehicle yourself and sold over a million copies, the HHO name became firmly established in public awareness, separately from the Brown’s Gas name.

All the Same Gas

Every one of these names, Brown’s Gas, HHO, HydrOxy, and the others listed below, refers to gas made the same fundamental way: electrolysis of water without a membrane separating the resulting gases. The name doesn’t determine quality. What varies between machines and brands is how much ExW a given electrolyzer actually produces.

Other brand and regional names for the same gas: Common-Ducted Gas, Rhode’s Gas, Spirig Gas, Brown Gas, Green Gas, Klein Gas, Aquygen, SG Gas, Ohmasa Gas, Knallgas, and HNG.

For what actually sets true HydrOxy/Brown’s Gas apart from a simple hydrogen-oxygen mixture, see HydrOxy and ExW.

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