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.”

Electric cars.  Will we all be driving them one day? Since the Nissan Leaf was first introduced in 2010, the car industry has been experimenting and modifying to see whether car buyers will fully adapt.

If electric cars are to dominate the market, then car mileage range between charges needs to continue to improve. America’s highways and byways also need more electric car chargers available. They also need to charge more quickly.

Though some people consider them the “next great thing,” electric cars are actually not new. They were first used more than 100 years ago The vehicles were preferred by both women and doctors. They were easier to start and very dependable.

How Did Electric Cars Come About?

In the early 20th century, cars with an electric motor were a logical outgrowth of the recently designed electric motors for locomotives and omnibuses.

The Anderson Carriage Company in Detroit got into the car business by making automobile bodies. In 1907, they decided to put together the whole car putting in an electric motor. They called their new model the Detroit Electric. This car went on to become the most popular and long-lived electric vehicle to be sold in the United States at that time. (To see photos of these cars, visit http://www.detroitelectric.org/.)

Just as the electric cars today, these electric vehicles were powered by a rechargeable battery. Drivers reportedly could drive 80 miles (130 km) between battery charging sessions. However, the top speed at that time was only 20 miles per hour (32 km/h). This was adequate for city driving.

The biggest issue with electric cars was the higher cost. The electric car retailed for $2650. (Buyers could add a longer-lasting Edison nickel-iron battery for an additional $600.) In contrast, the gas-powered Ford Model T touring car sold for a mere $690.

Advantages of Electric Cars

The higher-priced car offered advantages, however. Some electric cars featured closed cabs for the riders. This would have been appealing to women and to anyone in colder climates. But the real advantages were convenience and reliability.  If they were charged, they started easily and ran reliably.

The cars with gas-powered engines required hand-cranking the engine to get it started. Cranking a car was hard work and could be dangerous. If the crank flipped back suddenly, the person doing the cranking was subject to a broken wrist or a broken thumb. And if a driver started his own car, he had to crank it and then leap into the driver’s seat before the engine stalled.

Those who could afford electric cars bought them if they could. Doctors (remember reading about doctors who made house calls?) needed cars that were easy to start and very reliable, in case they had to go out in the middle of the night.

Favored by the Wealthy

Wives of the wealthy, including Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. all owned Detroit Electrics.

An article by Christopher Gray in The New York Times (6/14/09) described Fifth Avenue mansions and their private garages in Manhattan in the early 20^th century. Andrew Carnegie, who built his mansion at 91st and Fifth Avenue in 1902 (now the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum), had a three-story Georgian-style “automobile house” next door with space for five electric cars and three charging panels.

Why Didn’t Electric Cars Catch On?

Why didn’t electric cars catch on? According to Harold Evans in his book, They Made America, the success of the gas-powered automobile came about because of Henry Ford.

Ford created the first mass-produced automobile that could be priced low enough that more people could buy it. When Thomas Edison was introduced to Henry Ford for the first time in 1896, Edison encouraged Ford to keep working on his gas-powered cars.  

Edison said that electric cars were doomed because they had to remain near power stations. The great inventor noted that a gas car that carries its own power plant (a gasoline engine) was more promising.

Gas-Powered Cars Got Better

During this era, gas-powered cars also got better. When Charles Kettering (1876-1958) invented the electric “car starter” in 1911, the game began to change. The first car to have an electric starter was a Cadillac in 1912. Suddenly gas-powered cars could be started with a key or a button rather than a crank. While it took 10-15 years before they were common, the trend grew and led to the continued growth of the gas car. 

Detroit Electric Lasts Until 1939

Detroit Electric continued to build electric cars, but the company encountered two rough patches. The first was in the 1920s, when gas-powered cars caught on. The second slide for the company was shortly after the stock market crash of 1929.

Finally in 1939, the company quit making the Detroit Electric car. Its time had passed.

Also see “Where Did They Buy Gas Before There Were Gas Stations?”