Petrol
The other day, I got to thinking about petrol, what I knew
of it, and what changes I’d seen regarding it, throughout my life.
In the first half of the 19th century, crude oil,
or petroleum (a combination of two Latin words meaning “oil from rocks”) was first
distilled into paraffin and generally used for lighting oil lamps. This was in
the “horse and cart” days before internal combustion engines had been invented.
Mechanical Power, for manufacturing, propulsion, and pumping
water (amongst other things) was provided by steam, heated by coal.
The basic principles of an internal combustion engine began
to take shape around the same time, although initially these used hydrogen gas
in the main, usually triggered by electric spark. Later on, experiments were
conducted using paraffin, but paraffin was less volatile and it was harder to
produce a satisfactory mixture.
By heating crude oil further, more volatile distillates are
produced, and these are distilled into petrol. With these heavier vapours it
was possible to obtain a far better explosive mix, and the internal combustion
engine that we know today gradually came into being.
Early engines were single and sometimes twin cylinder,
somewhat crude by today’s standards but they established the benefits that a
few horsepower can bring. Towards the end of the 19th century the
first four-cylinder engine had been built, and the foundations of the modern
car were being developed.
Engines continued to be developed and improved. Over the
years they became considerably more powerful, light enough to allow powered
flight, and efficiencies have improved to levels that were once only dreams.
All this has taken place in little more than a century, and
Initially, petrol was sold in cans in chemist shops, and
garages. Later, as demand grew, it was sold in bulk and delivered by pump from
a tank. Not so long back, they were filling stations everywhere with an attendant
to operate the pump, but in recent years profit margins shrank, and regulations
ballooned, which made even self-service pumps a liability for all but the very
biggest filling stations.
So now, with more vehicles on our road than ever before, we
find ourselves travelling further to use fewer filling stations, which seems
odd. When I was a youngster, many people ran mopeds which had perhaps a litre
tank capacity, or less. There was always a local filling station where they
could fill up (every couple of hundred miles?!). I wonder where they go these
days? I guess a 12 mile round trip instead of no more than half a mile?
Anyway, I thought that occurred to me was: If petrol was invented
today, would it be allowed? In our safety conscious modern world, a highly
flammable liquid giving off explosive vapours, would, I think, be banned.
Unless, that is, we were still in a horse-drawn era!
Makes you think, doesn’t it.
