MTFCA Forum

Here’s a higher end gas station with no-knock gas and a 1920? T Coupe filling up. The sign says General Motors Research center. Were they using it at this paticular station for testing the product?

I think it says Product of the General Motors Research Corporation and the "of" is missing and "the" is lower case not capital.
Seems to be a result of GM's work with the oil/fuel company.

From the internet https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/p ... H.75.4.344
"In 1922, Thomas Midgley and co-workers at the General Motors Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio discovered that adding tetraethyl lead to gasoline raised the compression and hence, speed, by eliminating the engine "knock". This allowed for the development of the "mod-ern" automobile produced over the next 50 years.3 General Motors, which had an interlocking directorship with the DuPont Chemical Company, quickly contracted with DuPont and Standard Oil of New Jersey to produce tetraethyl lead. Leaded gasoline was placed on sale in selected markets on February 1, 1923. In 1924, DuPont and General Motors created the Ethyl Corporation to market and produce its final product.
--
--
The story that goes with the picture https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/p ... H.75.4.344
-- --
--
The sign above Ethyl & the outer bump globes
-- --
The inner globes on the pumps

TEL saved billions of gallons of gasoline, and consumers' dollars, during the years it was in use, and it helped win WWII.

TXGOAT2 wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 04, 2024 7:37 am

TEL saved billions of gallons of gasoline, and consumers' dollars, during the years it was in use, and it helped win WWII.

And it made Ethyl Corp a lot of money over the years. here is their river front HQ building in Richmond, VA and a comparison to the VA state capital building below it.
Ethyl: Capital non-riverfront:

I don't believe that Thomas Midgley discovered adding Tetraethyl lead to gas but did research on it, Lead was added to plane fuel in Europe during WW1.

Thomas Midgley Jr’s bio. It claims he added the ethyl lead to fuel after a chemist handed it to him.

https://www.healthandenvironment.org/en ... %20patents.

I recall reading about Kettering’s trials of ant-knock compounds which included red dyes prior to using tetraethyl lead.

Not nearly the horror it has been made out to be.

I wonder if anyone who complains about the lead dot under their Stanley insulated mugs would be brave enough to sit in one of our lead laden cars.