X-ray image of the Coso Artifact

The Coso Artifact looked much like the fossil shell-encrusted geodes that the rock hunting trio often sought for their gem store. It wasn’t until one of the three, Mike Mikesell, took a diamond saw to the rock that something proved amiss. The rock split open, but instead of crystallized mineral, it revealed what looked like a porcelain cylinder surrounding a shiny metal rod. Also encased in the rock’s layers were what appeared to be a washer and a nail. Closer examination revealed that the porcelain was surrounded by a hexagonal casing, and an x-ray showed a tiny spring at one end.

In 1969, Ronald Willis of the International Fortean Organization, a nonprofit organization that promotes and facilitates research into unexplained phenomena, suggested that the threaded, corroded metal object might be an aged spark plug. The find might not be so curious save for one detail: According to geologists, the object’s rock encasement, assuming it was a bonafide geode, would have taken nearly half a million years to form. Even Berger’s very first spark plug would have been little more than a century old at the time. Willis’ report caught the attention of creationist organizations, since such a find might well force a revision of known history – at least the history of spark plugs – should the rock prove to, in fact, be a geode.

Three decades after the find, multiple organizations reopened investigations into the Coso Artifact. During the late 1990s, a researcher with the Spark Plug Collectors of America declared the object a 1920s-era Champion spark plug. So, how could a 40-year-old spark plug get inside a half-million-year-old rock? Skeptics say that the rock may not be a genuine geode but a much more recently formed rock. And even if it is a geode, it might have been covered in mud and clay sometime between the 1910s and 1930s, picked up a few hitchhikers as it rolled along and finally hardened in the California sun, baking the spark plug, nail and washer into its outer, much younger layer.

Unfortunately, we may never know for sure whether the Coso Artifact is in fact the world’s oldest spark plug and proof of ancient technology much more advanced than previously thought, or a simple geologic collision of the old and not-so-old. Attempts over the past few years to reach the Coso Artifact’s owner and its original finders have failed and no one else knows where the artifact is today. In any case, we at E3 Spark Plugs bet you’ll never look at a spark plug the same way again.

Fast forward one century and the garden variety spark plug hasn’t changed much, outside of manufacturing materials and techniques to make them cheaper. That is, until E3 Spark Plugs entered the scene. We figured 100 years was plenty of time to go without a major advancement, and we had a gut feeling that a better, more environmentally sensitive product was possible. So, we headed back to school – literally – and recruited researchers specializing in combustion and engine dynamics from leading engineering universities.

The result was a totally revamped electrode design. Gone was the antiquated J-wire electrode. And after several years of testing and back-to-the-drawing-board drudgery, we debuted the DiamondFire spark plug design. The DiamondFire design features multiple sharp edges (rather than the traditional single edge) to the circular edge of the center electrode, allowing the spark to seek the path of least resistance. This design boosts combustion pressure and completely burns the fuel/air mixture within the cylinder, allowing for higher power output, increased fuel economy and reduced emissions. That means you get more horsepower using less fuel and leaving less mess in the air, helping to reduce air pollution and global warming.

We have verified every claim via testing using the most sophisticated diagnostic equipment available and via independent testing. Even the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) reports that E3 Spark Plugs’ DiamondFire technology offers “clear advantages in HC and CO emissions control while at the same time improving power and fuel economy.” In fact, E3 Spark Plugs is the only spark plug mentioned in EPA rulings as a supplemental emissions control device.

We’ve come a long way, baby! Find out for yourself how E3’s DiamondFire spark plugs can improve the performance of your engines from your Winnebago to your weedeater. Browse our website to find and E3 spark plugs dealer near you or send us a comment or question via our convenient online email form.