When Gasoline-Powered Cars Were First Used, Where Did They Get Gasoline?

How did early drivers get gasoline before there were gas stations?

Until “horseless carriages” began traveling along American roads, there hadn’t been much need for gasoline.

 Gasoline was identified during the mid-19^th century, when companies began refining crude oil to extract kerosene. Gasoline was a byproduct of this process, but because it was highly flammable, it was generally discarded.

But with the development of gas-powered automobiles, Americans needed places to buy gasoline.

Early Retail

Sources for gasoline varied from community to community. The key factor was that it needed to be sold by establishments that were accustomed to handling flammable substances such as alcohol or kerosene. In some communities, pharmacies, hardware stores, and general stores tended to be the primary places. In smaller communities, motorists might need to stop at a blacksmith where they might have to scoop gasoline out of a barrel and then take it to their automobile.

In stores, gasoline was generally sold in five-gallon containers. The motorist then used a funnel or a long-necked container to pour it into the automobile gas tank.

Five gallons was generally enough for driving locally for a week or two. If a longer trip was planned, the driver might buy an extra container of gasoline to take on the trip. Some more expensive cars had permanently-installed compartments along the running board for storing extra gas. But because the fuel was highly combustible, any unexpected impact to the car could cause it to catch fire.

To avoid traveling with extra gasoline, some drivers called ahead to retail establishments on their planned route. They then requested that the store hold a supply of gasoline for their arrival.

Kerosene Led to Gasoline

This article would be incomplete if we didn’t take a step back to better understand how gasoline became a preferred fuel source for automobiles.

The process began with lighting. In the late 1800s, Americans had two primary sources of powered lighting.  As households graduated from whale oil, they moved on to kerosene, a fuel that was identified by Canadian geologist Abraham Gesner in 1846. Gesner’s kerosene came from coal.

As use of kerosene became more popular, oil drillers found that they could refine crude oil to make kerosene as well. The production of kerosene from crude oil resulted in a byproduct known as gasoline.

At first, gasoline was viewed as waste and was discarded.

More Progress in Lighting

While kerosene was gaining popularity throughout the country, including in more rural areas, another development was coming along in cities. Starting in London, the British were beginning to use natural gas. Pipes were installed under the streets, and the city was soon well-lit from natural gas. (It was such a novelty that people from the countryside traveled to London just to see this new phenomenon.)  

In the United States in 1802, inventor Benjamin Henfrey, a Baltimore native, suggested natural gas be used to light the streets of Baltimore as well as the nearby harbor lighthouses. While Henfrey suggested the plan, it took the wealthy Peale family (a family of artists who often worked in Baltimore) to help implement it.

As a result, Baltimore was the first city to implement natural gas for street lighting.

New Products Resulted

Some of the machinery and tools created for the use of natural gas turned out to be helpful later on with gasoline. 

One of the items was the Gilbert & Barker Gas Pump. In 1865, two partners, Charles Gilbert and John Barker, created the “Springfield Gas Machine” which was a way of dispensing measured amounts of natural gas. If towns installed the Gilbert & Barker gas pump, then there was a way to measure how much gas was being used, and therefore, how much the municipality would need to pay.

In the early 1900s, some of the early automobiles were made with gas-powered engines. When Gilbert & Barker saw this new development, mechanics in their company re-tooled their natural gas pump so it could be used for gasoline, too.

But Why Was Gasoline Preferred?

Gasoline turned out to be the “secret sauce” for automobiles because of the development of the internal combustion engine. Once the engine was refined so that it was spark-ignited, two German car makers (Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler) experimented with putting the motor in what would become early automobiles.

The success in Europe inspired American automobile inventors to experiment with combustible engines powered by spark plugs. Different fuels were tested, but the inventors soon saw that gasoline was best. It burned relatively cleanly and combined well with air-fuel mixture that was necessary to power the motor.

So while electric cars were still being sold in the early 1900s, gasoline-powered automobiles were taking over the car market. They were much less expensive and very reliable. With that positive sign, inventors and business owners placed their money on new developments that eased the marketing of gasoline.

Invention of the Hand Pump and the Bowser

Stores that sold gasoline were perplexed by the higher demand for the product. It wasn’t safe to store the fuel in large quantities, and customers kept asking for better ways to buy the product. Drivers didn’t love having to come into stores to for their five gallons of gasoline and then having to take it out to pour it in the automobile themselves.

  An entrepreneur named Sylvanus Freelove Bowser (1854-1938) living in Fort Wayne, Indiana, had a solution. Bowser witnessed a similar problem when people wanted to buy kerosene for their homes and businesses. In 1885, he invented and patented a pump that dispensed kerosene. 

When a market for gasoline came along, S.F. Bowser already had the perfect apparatus. He also saw that since customers were using the gasoline for automobiles, it made sense to build storage tanks that could be located outside the store nearer the road.

Bowser started selling 50-gallon tanks (enclosed with wood for added safety) along with a pump that could dispense gasoline. Bowser referred to them as “Self-Measuring Gasoline Storage Pumps,” and introduced them in 1905. Store owners were delighted.

As these storage systems proliferated in the more populous parts of the country, they became known as “filling stations—a term that you sometimes still hear today. 

First Modern Gas Station

One of the first modern gas stations opened in 1913 on Baum Avene in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The street was known as “automobile row,” and the station was run by Gulf Oil (“Good Gulf Gasoline”).

The Texas Company (Texaco) was not far behind with gas stations of their own. (“Trust your car to the man who wears the star”) Other oil companies soon followed.

Initially the gas stations focused on selling gas. They offered free air and water for cars, but not much else.

This was primarily because the Model T initially dominated the automobile market. Henry Ford prided himself on creating cars that didn’t need servicing. Each new car was sold with a grease cup. Ford believed that any owner could grease their own car and keep it running. 

But competition entered the automobile market, and soon more complicated cars were on the road. The need for more service was created, so “greasing palaces” were added to gas stations.

That was the beginning of what we now call “service stations.”

By 1930, America had 15,000 gas stations plus approximately 7500 curbside pumps.  A decade later there were more than 100,000 gas stations. 

Today most gas stations have at least a dozen or so pumps. Some of the larger stations on interstate highways have up to 120 pumps. 

Self Service?

The first self-service gas station opened in Los Angeles in 1947, but drivers at that time showed little interest in getting out to pump their own gasoline. Finally, after the long lines for gasoline during the oil embargo, self-service stations caught on.  For a time, some states banned self-service gas pumps. Today the only state that prohibits self-service is New Jersey.

But today motorists face a new dilemma. Just as motorists used to wonder where they could buy gasoline once they were on the road, today many drivers are looking for where they can stop to charge their electric vehicle.

We’re back to the old dilemma: Gas or electric?

****

For more information on early cars, see “Auto Sales Stimulus, 1909.”

Share with Others!