When ‘fill ‘er up’ meant using drums and funnels
By Christopher Tan - April 28, 2007
The Straits Times
Quenching the thirst of over 600 million vehicles on the planet is a mammoth task. There are around 150,000 filling stations dotting the globe, five times the number of McDonald’s outlets.
But have you ever wondered how the taken-for-granted network started? With some difficulty, that’s for sure. Proponents of alternative fuels who find it a challenge to set up new infrastructure should find some comfort in this.
Before the arrival of the automobile, petrol was largely a useless byproduct of the kerosene-refining process. Petrol had been used on a limited basis for some stoves and lamps in the 18th century, but kerosene was the primary ingredient needed to power lighting back then.
In the United States, kerosene and petrol could be bought at general stores (today, many petrol stations are general stores). In Germany, pharmacies dispensed petrol.
The fuels were stored in barrels and sold in gallon tanks or any container the customer had. As you can imagine, this was messy and not very safe.
Around 1883, a young man named Sylvanius Bowser came up with an idea to draw water from a well using a wooden plunger. In 1885, he applied this idea to a kerosene pump attached to a wooden barrel, and founded SF Bowser Pump Co.
The unit was self contained and included the storage barrel, the plunger, a hand lever and an upright faucet lever. This pumping unit was a huge success and soon became known as a “filling station”.
By 1890, he had adapted this unit to pump petrol in addition to kerosene for the lighting industry. Thus, the first true “gas pump” was born.
Bowser sold his new contraption to general stores and the first car repair workshops in 1893.
It proved to be a hit with early motorists, who previously had to fill up using the “drum and measure” method. Petrol stored in bulk steel drums would be gravity-fed into measuring cans before being poured through funnels into the car’s fuel tank.
The funnel was lined with a rag or chamois to strain sediment that might damage the engine. This process was time-consuming, inaccurate and unsafe.
The Bowser invention revolutionised the refuelling process and helped accelerate the proliferation of cars. After all, people back then had to be convinced that it was all more convenient than feeding hay to horses.
Even as the dispensing method improved, petrol as a fuel was imperfect. For one, petrol-powered engines often suffered “knocking” or “pinging”, when the fuel did not ignite properly. This marred efficiency.
In 1921, engineer Thomas Midgley at the laboratory of the General Motors Research Corp in Ohio discovered that tetraethyl lead – a compound of lead – could reduce knocking.
Despite its hazardous nature, it was adopted by the oil industry. And motorists were none the wiser (or chose to look the other way). Thus the first “octane booster” was born.
It was not till decades later that the stuff which caused birth defects and other health problems was removed. That does not mean petrols are harmless. Hazardous compounds like methylbenzene, benzene and methyltertbutylether are part of the cocktail in many markets.