He talks with the conviction of an evangelist on a religious revival.

Thomas E. Kasmer works from Electro Form machine shop on Binghamton's East Side, where he shows a computer model half-view of his Hydristor, a device he contends will revolutionize modern transportation.

THOMAS La BARBERA/ Press & Sun-Bulletin

The eyes are penetrating. The conversation is focused. His full, 6-foot, 2-inch frame and the head of wavy, gray hair and youthful look belie this 65-year-old. It's hard not to notice Thomas E. Kasmer. And if you give him a minute, you won't soon forget him.

"Talking to Tom is like trying to take a sip out of a fire hose," said Paul Robinson, an acquaintance from Modesto, Calif.

Kasmer, of Vestal, just returned from a 7,000-mile journey -- driving a GMC box-van with a John Deere lawn tractor tucked inside -- preaching the gospel of his Hydristor to anyone who would listen.

Kasmer's odd-named Hydristor -- a combination of hydraulics and transistor -- is a device that, he says, will revolutionize the auto industry by cutting fuel costs, providing more power and reducing emissions. The Vestal resident boasts, with no hint of self-doubt, that his invention, now installed in that lawn tractor, will not only change the auto industry, but will also change the world.

"It changes the entire paradigm of the way energy is handled," Robinson said.

That's a hard sell. And coming from an often intense Kasmer -- a man who thought he could single-handedly transform the auto industry a decade ago with a sports car called the Mag One -- it's a sell that often stretches the limits of plausibility. But there are enough experts attesting to the feasibility of Kasmer's design to lend him at least a hint of credibility.

The Hydristor, Kasmer says, replaces the transmission and the torque converter in an internal combustion engine, rendering it more efficient than traditional methods.

"The Hydristor solves the age-old dilemma in the auto industry," Kasmer said. "It gives them the power they want in a car that lasts for more than eight years."

As explained by Alan L. Hitchcock, editor of Hydraulics & Pneumatics, a trade magazine, the Hydristor is a vane pump or motor that uses two pairs of pistons to vary the shape of a flexible pumping chamber. Kasmer says coupling a Hydristor pump back-to-back with a Hydristor motor forms a continuously variable transmission.

"It's just like changing the sprockets on a multi-speed bike," said Cliff Carlson, a former automotive engineer in Fenton, Mich.

The device allows the engine to run at far lower revolutions per minute than now possible to get the power necessary to operate a vehicle, Kasmer said.

"We have asked some experts that we know about the Hydristor," said Wayne Walker of Republic Aerospace in Duncan, Okla. "The assessment is that it has potential and would be a substantial advance and innovation."

Walker, chief executive of Republic, was one of the many Kasmer visited during his cross-country trek. Walker saw the Hydristor-outfitted lawn tractor and believes there may be potential for this device to deliver the efficiencies Kasmer claims.

"The efficiencies have to do with the continuous nature of the transmission coupling," Walker said. "The savings are in energy and there are savings in weight."

Big 3 snub

First, for Kasmer, there was the lawn tractor prototype. Now comes the hard work. The man who has done undergraduate and graduate work in physics at Binghamton University and once worked for IBM Corp. is outfitting a Ford Expedition with a Hydristor to further prove that the device delivers the kind of performance he promised on the open road.

"The minute I get a Ford Expedition running (with a Hydristor) I'm going to have to run from the paparazzi," Kasmer said.

Kasmer, as you can tell, is no wallflower. During his recent trip, he spent another five days in Las Vegas in March pushing his Hydristor at a construction and hydraulics trade show. The curious crowded around him. The well-connected industry types largely ignored him.

There are plenty of skeptics, not least of which is the auto industry. He says he's had limited discussions with the Big Three, but interest is tepid at best.

"The auto industry is very resistant to change," he said.

And Kasmer acknowledges that investors too are seemingly reluctant to shell out cash to pay for further research on the device. All Kasmer offers is his vision for a bold new world where the Hydristor is outfitted in every virtually vehicle known to mankind.

"Everyone out there gets 100 guys just like me a day," Kasmer said. "I'm fighting that. I'm kind of lost in the sea."

Kasmer's battling history, which is rife with eccentric inventors who say their contraption will revolutionize this or that. Many turn out to be nothing but frauds.

Hitchcock, the trade journal editor, knows the charlatans. He gets variations of perpetual motion machines pitched to him regularly.

Hitchcock, an engineer by training, was at first doubtful of Kasmer's claims, but the more he studied the theory and the applications of Kasmer's Hydristor the more he became convinced that there may some merit in Kasmer's approach.

"This is not a perpetual motion machine," said Walker of Republic Aerospace. The trade journal editor and auto industry engineer agree.

"He hasn't broken any laws of physics," Carlson said. "In theory, it should work. The biggest advantage of his system is that it's very small and compact. I don't think I've seen a variable transmission as small and as simple as this."

Unwilling to compromise

Getting from prototype to production, however, could be a large leap, especially for Kasmer, who is unwilling to compromise his business principles in the name of commercial success.

"I want to find financing where I don't have to give up control," Kasmer said. And the strident tone of his voice when speaking about the control of his invention, the subject of three patents, gives you the sense that he means it.

"Tom has every egalitarian, ethical goal in mind," Robinson said. "He wants to generate a win-win situation in all cases. He wants to see that the workers are honored, the shareholders are honored and the world gets his design."

Under Kasmer's scenario, the Hydristor will be manufactured in the Southern Tier, giving rise to a new growth industry for the region.

"I can have 5,000 people employed making Hydristors," Kasmer said, also noting its possible use for electric generation.

But the inventor readily acknowledges that he would rather spend time tinkering with his invention than drafting business plans. Getting the Hydristor from the prototype into production could be even more difficult than coming up with the invention. Kasmer is an independent spirit, not one to take kindly to outside help.

"He would benefit from a synergistic, experienced management team," said Walker, the experienced chief executive.

The main question for Carlson is whether the Hydristor can deliver the performance needed in the quiet setting of a passenger automobile. These devices, Carlson said, have the propensity to be quite noisy. Carlson wonders whether the device could first be used in construction machinery, where noise is less of a factor.

"He's got quite a ways to go before he can commercialize this," Carlson said.

No matter what advice outsiders give him, Kasmer will remain true to his cause. He expects the Hydristor-outfitted Ford Expedition to be ready in two to three months. He's confident that the three weeks he spent toting that John Deere lawn tractor from Binghamton to Tulsa to Las Vegas to Phoenix to Los Angeles to Bismark, N.D., to Minneapolis to Chicago to Jamestown will win him some much-needed financial and moral support.

"I'm going to keep on going because I know what I'm doing is right," Kasmer said.

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