Friday, August 12, 2016


Charles Kettering was the head of research at General Motors, but little is known about his interest in ethyl alcohol fuel and how it fit into G.M.’s long term strategy. General Motors (and Kettering) had come to considerable grief that summer of 1925 over another octane boosting fuel called tetraethyl lead, and government officials had been quietly in touch with Ford engineers about alternatives to leaded gasoline additives.

Ford was the champion of the farmer, and made his model t engine run on a variety of fuels, not just gasoline from refineries, but from simple fuels that a Model T owner might find when driving around the world, like grain/corn/wood alcohol, camphene, mineral spirits, and kerosene (which was plentiful in that age of oil lamps being more common than lightbulbs). Most importantly to Ford, in 1925 the American farms that Ford loved (recall his soybean car attempt) were facing an economic crisis that would later intensify with the depression.





Kettering’s interest is particularly important because he was enthusiastic about alcohol fuel even after the discovery of tetraethyl lead. In fact, Kettering originally planned that the octane boosting power of leaded gasoline would pave the way for the fuel of the future — ethyl alcohol from cellulosic biomass. But then, GM invested in lead gas companies Ethyl Gasoline Corp, Standard Oil of New Jersey and with royalties to be made, it turned to "scientific" studies to prove leaded gas was superior. Coincidentally, only studies from oil production countries agreed, and studies from alcohol production countries proved contrary.



In 1920 and 1921 Kettering, Boyd and Midgley were preoccupied with the long-term replacement of petroleum, and were not technically or politically opposed to ethyl alcohol as a straight fuel or in blends with gasoline. Kettering spoke out against taxes on alcohol as an impediment to fuel research and helped overcome other obstacles.

Clearly, G.M. switched gears sometime in 1923 or 1924.






Technical experts in the oil industry claimed that alcohol fuel blends “are definitely inferior to gasoline alone from every angle of motor performance.” Editorials by Lowell Thomas (very famous guy in the 30s) and other radio announcers paid for by oil industry sponsors claimed that alcohol fuel would make “speakeasys” out of gasoline stations because bootleggers could easily separate out the gasoline and sell the alcohol.

Automotive History Review, Bill Kovarik, Spring 1998, No. 32, p. 7 – 27.
 Cited in Neil Young’s Waging Heavy Peace (NY: Penguin, 2012); ]
Mark Fiege’s Republic of Nature (U.Washington Press, 2012);
(Energy Future Coalition, 2006); and others.

1 comment:

  1. Hey, thanks for this post, very good. I've read Jamie Kitman's lengthy thesis on the leaded gasoline quite a while ago, and just been fascinated by the level of, I don't know, what seems to be a criminality of the whole thing.