Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

RollinThundaga t1_iu6l6l4 wrote

I read a comment or something once from a chemical engineer who said that, of gasoline/petrol hadn't become ubiquitous a century ago, there's no way regular people would want to buy or handle it without tons of safety precautions.

It's toxic as shit and a flammable solvent.

91

ramriot t1_iu77qhf wrote

A biologist friend once told me that many small rodents cannot tolerate certain antibiotics including penicillin.

Thus if this first great antibiotic had been required to be tested as thoroughly as modern pharmaceuticals are we likely would not have it until far later, possibly too late to treat infected WWII soldiers & thus put at rist the allies winning the war.

69

CorpseOnMars t1_iu6zvwl wrote

Then they decided putting lead in it was a good idea. Guess that made for good serial killer podcasts, so we got that.

45

arvidsem t1_iu7j3jx wrote

Don't worry, they knew that the lead was a bad idea when they started. Leaded gasoline should probably be considered a crime against humanity.

44

Regolith_Prospektor t1_iu7d4gs wrote

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.

34

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…

28

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.

24

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.

2

ArkyBeagle t1_iue19jb wrote

They barely handle it now. Lotta engineering in fuel delivery.

> a flammable solvent.

Gasoline has weird properties as both. It has a strange set of heats of ignition.

2