MTFCA Forum

Those worried about the mixing of gasoline for fuel - from an early article on fuel.

So if you remember your history (History is bunk), early processing of petroleum was to refine and produce kerosene. A by product of kerosene production was was gasoline. Produced at a time when there was no concept of mixing it with special additives. Really until the need for a better fuel for the internal combustion engine gasoline was a throwaway product.

But with the advent of a low compression motor, (not the diesel or heavy fuel engine) the by product of kerosene distillation gasoline was finding a new use. And its octane was low.

Early gasoline was comprised of hexane, heptane, and pentane. With just these three chemicals it was pure.

As for fuels for early cars an expert in 1913 stated that there would be no need to use alcohol for automobile fuel, in any form. (That�s that!
John Francis and Horace Elgin Dodge. (aka Dodge Brothers Inventors of the..........)

I don't think gasoline has ever had a fixed definition. I have used thousands of gallons of natural gasoline, condensed from wet natural gas. It had about the same general properties as to BTU content and volatility as commercial gasoline, except that the octane equivalency was very low. You can run low octane gasoline in a high compression engine by keeping the intake manifold pressure low.