About this time men were working on the development of a self-propelled vehicle. But they needed an engine which could use some sort of fuel that was plentiful and inexpensive. The steam engine didn't seem to be the answer. Dunlop had already solved the tire problem and the year of the Centennial in Philadelphia, America heard of the internal combustion engine - an engine that used gas as fuel. Some ten years later vehicles propelled by this type of engine were being built and, at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, many Americans saw the horseless carriage for the first time. With tires and engines available there was still no real supply of fuel in sight. Unknowingly the petroleum refiners in this country provided the answer. In refining petroleum to get kerosene they had a troublesome by product - gasoline. They could find no use for gasoline or even a way to get rid of it. You could have all you wanted if you would haul it away. In fact, laws had to be passed to keep the refiner from dumping gasoline into rivers and harbors. Government inspectors were on hand at every refinery to see that none of this volatile material got into the kerosene. Now this gasoline, that was such a great nuisance to the refiners, was a very good fuel for the new internal combustion engine and, as the automobile and airplane developed, the "by-product" gasoline became more and more important each year. Now it is one of our most important civilian and military materials. |