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Regolith_Prospektor t1_iu7d4gs wrote

Reply to comment by RollinThundaga in Revisiting the great exploding trousers epidemic of the 1930s by marketrent

Gasoline used to be sold at drug stores (late 1800s) and was used as a delousing agent. It was a byproduct of refining crude oil (they were mainly after kerosene to use as lamp oil). When Bertha Benz took her famous road trip in the first automobile in 1888, she topped up at drugstores along the way.

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saschaleib t1_iu7s72d wrote

She literally had to stop in every village to buy out the supply, because they only sold it in small bottles and their engine wasn’t exactly fine-tuned for fuel-efficiency.

The legend goes that following that experience she suggested to set up what we would now call “gas stations” along the roads…

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markhewitt1978 t1_iu83xfs wrote

If it were today it would be used as an argument as to why gas cars are impossible as there's no infrastructure.

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War_Hymn t1_iugdzae wrote

Funny enough, the early diesel tractors with hot bulb ignition they had back then could pretty much run on any kind of oil.

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