As a freshman in high school, I failed chemistry class due to an
extreme disinterest in the entire subject. I do recall a demonstration
in which the teacher hooked a large one and a half volt battery to a
glass and wire electrolyzer that transformed water into separated
hydrogen and oxygen. I would later learn that commercial hydrogen and
oxygen producers also used this method in an inefficient manner that
requires more energy than the fuel produced can generate through
combustion.
In the late eighties I would learn that a boy genius in California
learned to make hydrogen from water efficiently with a twelve volt
battery and standard auto electrical system, during the 1970s. Around
1990, my machinist neighbor built a hydrogen generator that did not
work due to defects in the plans the boy genius had drawn up in prison
when he was no longer a boy.
My neighbor was not interested in correcting the defect when it was
discovered and I was only a bit disappointed. My father was a hobby
style inventor and he gave me a good idea for a cheaper and much more
effective 12 volt hydrogen generator. I never got around to building
it and decided there was no point in separating the oxygen and the
hydrogen after splitting the water....

http://groups.google.com/group/waterforfueld