http://globalleadnet.com/143/the-secret-history-of-lead-ethanol-on-the-march
In October 1921, less than two months before he hatched leaded gasoline, Thomas Midgley drove a high-compression-engined car from Dayton to a meeting of the Society of Automotive Engineers in Indianapolis, using a gasoline-ethanol blended fuel containing 30 percent alcohol. âAlcohol,â he told the assembled engineers, âhas tremendous advantages and minor disadvantages.â The benefits included âclean burning and freedom from any carbon depositâ¦[and] tremendously high compression under which alcohol will operate without knockingâ¦. Because of the possible high compression, the available horsepower is much greater with alcohol than with gasoline.â
After four yearsâ study, GM researchers had proved it: Ethanol was the additive of choice. Their estimation would be confirmed by others. In the thirties, after leaded gasoline was introduced to the United States but before it dominated in Europe, two successful English brands of gasâCleveland Discoll and Kool Motorâcontained 30 percent and 16 percent alcohol, respectively. As it happened, Cleveland Discoll was part-owned by Ethylâs half-owner, Standard Oil of New Jersey (Kool Motor was owned by the US oil company Cities Service, today Citgo). While their US colleagues were slandering alcohol fuels before Congressional committees in the thirties, Standard Oilâs men in England would claim, in advertising pamphlets, that ethanol-laced, lead-free petrol offered âthe most perfect motor fuel the world has ever known,â providing âextra power, extra economy, and extra efficiency.â
Wow! Your prenatal powers are amazing, maybe you ought to give some props to your Mom.
