Gasoline: Early troubles (Part II)

As I mentioned in the previous post, gasoline has truly left its mark on society. But gasoline has done more than that, it has pushed forward and spurred the development of the automobile. Pictured is a restored vintage gas pump. It is an interesting piece of history that holds a bit of romance for most people who behold it, not bearing what once came out of it. The gas pump itself has even been immortalized by the great 20th century painter Edward Hopper in his classic 1940 painting Gas.

What is worth noting though, is that it has only one grade of fuel offered. Not only that, but the grade of the fuel is not specified on the pump. Contrary to today, in which gas grades (measured by its octane rating) are clearly separated and rigidly enforced, gasoline used to be loosely regulated and completely unrated. The octane rating for gasoline sold well into the 1950's was not entirely specific and varied from station to station, pump to pump. For the most part though, the leaded gasoline sold before WWII had an octane rating of between 45 and 55.

The low octane rating created many problems that manifested themselves in the ways car were designed and the way they performed. Stay tuned for how poor gas helped to understate the true potential of many of yester-year's cars.

Gasoline: The automobile's lifeblood and demon (Part I)

Cars are an interesting thing. On the one hand, they are loved by people in a lot of ways. They get us around, allow us to do errands with ease or see the country from its roots. They let us express who we are and who we want to be perceived as in public. Cars are, in many ways, a reflection of society. This is nothing new to those who read this blog regularly, I have said that car mirror society before. But this is cars at their best and brightest. Cars are also one of the most reviled inventions in history. They clog our streets, pollute our air, and cost us billions of dollars a year to buy, insure, and maintain.

Interestingly, this dichotomy exists with the key motivator or automobiles as well, gasoline. Gasoline, the crude oil based fuel that provides the motive force for virtually every car in the US and many cars abroad has enjoyed a love/hate history with society. On the one hand, it has consistently provided us with a cheap, powerful, and plentiful source of (literally) bottled energy with which to make our cars run. On the other hand, gasoline produces pollution and drains the world of its oil reserves at an alarming rate.

For the next few days, I want to look into how gasoline has helped the car grow, adapt, and thrive. Beyond that, it is worth considering how gasoline has also limited the automobile and pushed it to find alternative means of propulsion.