THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 15, 1995 TAG: 9509140138
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
Bud and Sue Williams have survived a lot in the half century they've known each other.
First came the courtship.
``I met him when he came home on furlough,'' said Sue Williams, still trim and pretty after 50 years of marriage. ``We dated for a month and then he went overseas for a year. We were married two weeks after he came back.''
That development did not particularly thrill their families. Sue's father complained that she hardly knew Bud.
``I told him that I thought I did because I'd written him a letter every day for a year,'' Sue said. Not surprisingly, her father didn't find the argument convincing.
Nevertheless the marriage went on as planned.
Through the years the couple survived the frequent moves of Air Force life, the arrival and rearing of five daughters and the normal amount of trauma that accompanies a large active family.
They even survived what anyone who has gone through the process might consider the ultimate test: the development of a new product and the quest for a patent.
After two years of trial, error and waiting, a patent for a simple but effective device known as a carburetor fuel atomizer was recently issued to Edward F. (that's Bud) and Sylvia M. (that's Sue) Williams.
``It was definitely a joint venture. She got to do most of the testing,'' said Bud, as Sue grimaced ever so slightly.
The grimace was a reminder of the times she came close to being stuck on the road in the family Buick. That (not Bud's prized Corvette) became the test vehicle for the device, designed to add ooomph to older engines that are not fuel injected.
Basically, the fuel atomizer uses a fine screen to turn the fuel into a mist, which ignites more quickly and burns faster than regular non-atomized gas. That's the ooomph part - better starts, faster get-aways.
``It works great,'' said Bud, who holds an engineering degree from Old Dominion University. ``I put one on my daughter's truck and I almost wish that I hadn't,'' he added with the look of a father who still worries about things like jack rabbit starts and 0 to 60 in fewer seconds than he cares to think about.
The new product, designed to sell for about $30, also has other advantages - such as better fuel economy and fewer pollutants.
On his way to perfecting the device, the heart of which is the mesh screen that atomizes the fuel, Bud had his share of successes and failures. The failures are what Sue remembers most.
``He had to experiment with different sizes and types of mesh,'' she explained. ``And when they didn't work right, I had problems.''
Those problems included driving a wildly bucking car from Shore Drive down Great Neck Road past Cox High School or a car with flames shooting out the exhaust with each backfire.
``When I left home, I never knew if I'd make it back or not,'' she said.
Eventually all of the bugs were worked out, and Bud applied for the patent. Then the wait began.
The Williamses turned to a Massachusetts company for help with the complex patent process. In an almost record-breaking 21 months they had their patent in hand - fancy print, gold seal and all.
``Even the patent attorney couldn't believe that it came back so fast,'' Bud said.
These days, with the device working flawlessly on several of the family's cars (including Sue's Buick), the Williamses are working on marketing it. Among other things, they're exploring sales through a cable shopping network.
In the meantime, the couple whose hasty marriage left many heads shaking will take some time out for a Golden Anniversary cruise and a big family get-together to celebrate 50 years of collaboration and survival. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JO-ANN CLEGG
Sue and Bud Williams are celebrating their Golden Anniversary with a
patent on a device known as a carburetor fuel atomizer. Bud did the
inventing, and Sue did the testing on the old family Buick.
by CNB