Update: Dec 2006, I asked Donna if anyone responded to my post here. She said no. Her father passed away a few months after my posting. The search for Savoy is over, for Donna anyway. For me it doesn't matter to me if I ever learn anything more about John, heck, it just makes him more interesting. Back in 1996 I posted a page talking about Sir Frank Whittle, not knowing anything, just to find out later from people who actually knew him that he was alive when I posted the page but had since died. Time seems to be going by faster and faster and though many things I feel more mellow and relaxed about, I also feel an increased urgentcy for some other things. He may not have taken my call but the thought that at one time about 11 years ago it was possible to actually talk to the inventor of the jet engine - to me, it just amazing - and educational. This Savoy search is not so much to find him but a lesson in how things work, things like jet engines, mail-order business, the internet, Google, and maybe someday even - GRAVITY! (yah just never know, especially if you never try).
BTW: Both Bob and me (I'm Larry at Purple Computing - aka Pfranc.com) wonder if John is still alive. If you know, please contact me: click here to send me an email. --- I think this kind of communication is a good use of the internet --- to spread factual things about things, with the intent to help people know the truth about things. I asked Bob if it was OK to publish this and he said yes. Hey, BTW, long ago I asked my attorney, regarding another issue, - how much trouble can I get into by saying bad things publicly about a very large powerful company, and he said something that hit me smack dab between my eyes... "... speaking the truth is not against the law in the USA." --- DUH! How could we ever think anything else? Since that day I've thought to myself, you know, if it leads to a fight, then so be it because maybe it's a fight worth fighting - not the specific thing, but the idea of keeping the freedom we have to speak the truth (and this was years before Sept-11th). OK... take it BOB!
2002 December 28th: I received this email from Bob.
Hi Larry, my name is: Bob Miles (ne-neuro@ttlc.net)
When I lived in Malibu, California back in the '50's &'60's, I met John Savoy. He had a turbine that he advertized as "The Screamin' Demon." Don Hauswald, with whom I did some construction work, and I both thought that gas turbines were pretty neat, and we formed an association to raise money to finance Savoy's design and manufacture the units for commercial applications.
About a month into the project, however, squabbling broke up the operation and Don and Savoy took off on their own, having booted me out. Don raised, or borrowed enough money to buy some fairly expensive milling machines and other metal working equipment with which to fabricate the turbines. I remember that Savoy told me that the little device would even run on pneumatically entrained corn starch. I have no idea what happened to the venture after I was given the heave-ho, but a few years later I still saw ads for the "Screamin' Demon" in Popular Mechanics or Popular Science. I still have Zuckrow's book on jet engines which Savoy gave me to amplify my knowledge of gas turbines.
It was quite an adventure, and I admit to being crushed when I was voted out of the club. But, and perhaps it's rationalizing, I have a funny feeling that although Savoy may have had what could have been considered a good idea at the time, I think there was enough of the con artist that the "Screamin'Demon" was destined to remain a one column by one inch ad trolling for suckers. I regret this, because it may have left a rank smell in the nostrils of some pretty neat folks who were willing to put their bucks on the line for the love of the gas turbine.
Yes, I knew John Savoy...I spent time in his Santa Monica office/living quarters. Perhaps that should have smartened me up...if the device was as good as he claimed, I suspect he'd have had an office AND an apartment...on the other hand, maybe the "Screamin' Demon" was the real thing...and Savoy was the fraud.
Regards,
Bob Miles, MS
Larrys thoughts about the above: ... Santa Monica has very nice weather!
IPO: Jan 3rd, 2003
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