Categories: Technology

Kerosense - Gasoline

Nineteenth Century Products of Refining

Crude oil is a complex mixture of hundreds of different hydrocarbons with different molecular weights and densities. In the nineteenth century, the refining practice was to gradually apply heat to a batch of crude oil and slowly increase the temperature. Those fractions with the lightest molecular weight and density would vaporize first followed in sequence by the various heavier fractions as the temperature increased. The lightest fraction was called cymogene (butane). It was followed by rhigolene (pentane) and then gasoline. When distilling crude from the earliest Pennsylvania oil fields, these very light fractions represented 1.5% of the total volume of the crude oil charge. After these very light fractions came naphtha (10%), benzene (4%), kerosene (55%), and paraffin oil (19.5%), each a subsequent heavier fraction. The residium, gas & loss represented the final 10%. After separating each of these fractions by vaporizing at increasingly higher temperatures, the separated vapors were chilled and condensed into liquids called the fractions of distillation. Most fractions were treated with chemicals, usually sulfuric acid and caustic soda, to complete the refining.

Kerosene

For fifty-five years, 1859 – 1914, kerosene in terms of volume manufactured as well as total value was the leading refined product of the American petroleum industry. Throughout the last four decades of the nineteenth century, kerosene was used by both the American consumer and those in Europe as an illuminant in lamps. American refiners actually exported more of their kerosene to Europe than what was consumed at home. In America, kerosene competed with manufactured gas and, where available, natural gas as a source of light in nineteenth century homes.

New York was the principal port for the export of kerosene to Europe. In 1863, the New York Petroleum Association established standards for three grades of kerosene based on color and flashpoint, called the fire test, in degrees Fahrenheit. The lowest grade was called “Straw to Dark Straw”. The standard grade was called “Standard White” and specified to have a flashpoint of 1100. The premium grade was called “Water White” and specified to have a flashpoint of 1150. By the 1890’s “Water White” kerosene usually had a fire test of 1500. A particularly safe grade called “Headlight Water White” was marketed in the 1890’s, presumably for use on carriages.

Kerosene was marketed under a variety of trade names. In the Oil Region area, for example, the Independent Refinery, located near the Oil City and Cornplanter line on the road to Rouseville, was known for its very high quality “O-Li-Ene”. Small refiners had some of the market, but Standard Oil companies manufactured from 80 to 90% of the kerosene from 1880 – 1899. The big Imperial Refinery in Siverly and The Eclipse in Sugarcreek were part of Standard’s Atlantic refining and marketing group and substantial producers of kerosene.

Standard Oil marketed kerosene nationally under the “Standard” and “Rayolight” trade names as well as “Atlantic” in Pennsylvania. Standard shipped kerosene from its refineries by rail car to bulk stations located in or near population centers. Tank wagons pulled by horse teams were used to distribute kerosene to grocery stores, general stores, drug stores and hardware stores where it was sold to the consumer. Tank wagons would also deliver to large farms and industrial and commercial sites.

In the 1890’s, large stationary internal combustion engines with massive pistons and cylinders, impressively hefty flywheels and oversize bearing blocks replaced the steam engine in a wide variety of industrial applications. These large engines all ran on the basic Otto four cycle system with an air and fuel intake stroke, compression and ignition, power stroke and exhaust. The fuel was either a gaseous hydrocarbon, like natural or manufactured gas, or a vaporized liquid hydrocarbon like kerosene or gasoline. Either a red-hot plug or a device to generate an arcing electric current, a spark, was used to ignite the air and fuel mixture at the top of the compression stroke. Engines of this sort were used widely throughout the petroleum industry to provide the central power for operating multiple pumps in an oil field. The famous Reid Gas Engine was made in Oil City, Pennsylvania. Also, the Oil City Boiler Works manufactured the equally well known Hercules Gas Engine.

In the last decade of the nineteenth century, the generation and transmission of alternating current made the use of electric light bulbs feasible in American homes. In urban areas, kerosene was replaced by electric light as the illuminant of choice, but kerosene found continued use in rural America where there was no electricity till the 1930’s. New uses for kerosene were also developed. Most American farm tractors with their heavy, slow pistons burned kerosene, a cheaper fuel than gasoline, well into the 1950’s. Kerosene stoves and heaters continue to be used today.

Gasoline

Gasoline replaced kerosene in terms of the total value of product manufactured as the preeminent refined product of the petroleum industry in 1914. By 1919, gasoline surpassed kerosene in terms of sheer volume, the number of barrels refined by the oil industry. The reason – the American automobile.

The first American cars were built in the mid 1890’s, but very few existed. Only 8,000 automobiles were registered in the United States in 1899. The development and manufacture of the gasoline-powered automobile lurched along throughout the better part of the next decade. In 1907, some 143,000 automobiles were registered in the country; the demand for gasoline remained minimal. This changed with the introduction of Henry Ford’s long line of Model T’s in 1908 and the mass manufacturing innovations associated with this car. By 1911, more than 640,000 cars were registered with names like Ford, Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Maxwell, and Studebaker. Auto manufacturers produced almost 1.7 million cars in 1919 increasing the number registered in the United States to 7.6 million.

Gasoline was in short supply in 1899. The total amount of the gasoline-naphtha fraction produced in 1899 was 6.7 million barrels. This increased to nearly 75 million barrels in 1919. To manufacture sufficient supplies of gasoline from crude, refiners expanded the defined range of the gasoline fraction to include more of the heavier naphtha fraction; they added compressed and chilled well-head casing gas to the expanded range of acceptable gasoline–naphtha fractions; and they introduced pressurized thermal cracking to molecularly reconfigure and recombine lighter gasoline fractions from the heavier fractions. Together, all three measures substantially increased the yield of marketable gasoline from a barrel of crude.

Gasoline was originally distributed to the consumer using the existing kerosene network of bulk stations, tank wagons and grocery, general, hardware and drug stores. Motorists could also drive to the bulk stations along the railroad or have tank wagons deliver larger quantities to their homes or farms. Additionally, gasoline could be purchased by the motorist at auto dealers, farm implement dealers, bicycle shops, machine shops, auto parts stores and repair garages.

Gasoline was originally stored in tanks and barrels above ground and dispensed by gravity. Suitable outside dispensing pumps such as made by the Boston firm of Gilbert and Barker in 1911 allowed for gasoline to be stored underground and safely and accurately pumped into an automobile. Originally, curbside pumps were set along the street, but motorists quickly showed their preference for the off-the-street convenience of a “gas station”.

The opening of the Gulf Coast Field in Texas in 1901 allowed three aggressive independents operating in the Gulf Coast Field to grow and challenge Standard Oil’s market supremacy. The three independents were Gulf Oil, The Texas Company, and Sun Oil. Standard remained the giant, however, dominating production and transportation in the concurrent Mid Continent Field, the real monolith of the day, of Kansas and Oklahoma. Sinclair would evolve in the Mid Continent Field while Union Oil and Shell would concurrently grow on the West Coast. With this explosive growth in producing territories, Standard’s share of the petroleum business declined. Yet, the Standard Oil group of companies in 1920 still refined 50% of the crude oil consumed by the petroleum industry. In the 1920’s and 1930’s Standard Oil automotive brands included “Standard”, “Esso”, “Atlantic”, “Mobilgas”, “Red Crown”, “Polarine”, “Mobiloil”, and “Mica” – all icons of the times. Other brands like “ Good Gulf”, “Sunoco Blue”, “Texaco” and “Sinclair” all added to the great story of the American petroleum industry.

American roads were barely suitable for horses and wagons in 1899. A meager 125,000 miles of surfaced roads existed throughout the entire country in 1899. As a result of the Federal-Aid Road Act of 1916 and the use of manufactured asphalt produced by the petroleum industry, over 350,000 miles of surfaced roads could be driven in 1920. Road improvements have never stopped.

Engine knock as a result of poor vaporization of the broader range of acceptable refined gasoline limited gasoline engine performance. Under a license granted by the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation, Standard of Indiana was the first to market tetraethyl lead gasoline in 1924. This allowed an increase in gasoline engine compression ratios from 4:1 to 7:1 greatly improving the torque and power of automotive engines. This allowed for much larger, heavier cars such as the Peerless, Lincoln and Packard.