Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

A pic posted on the HAMB a couple days ago.



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Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

"73 Octane"? Can you even run a camp stove on that stuff?

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

I thought leaded gas came in the 50s with higher compression overhead engines.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

in a 1933 tube up book they list different timing settings for regular and ethel for the model B 4 cylinder.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

The tetraethyl lead was one thing but the gasoline formula was also different at the time. The catalytic reforming process wasn't developed and put into use before 1949. This allowed the lower grade naphtha to be changed to a higher grade.

The old tractors were still running on Kerosene back in the 20s & 30s. Poor folks used wood gas in some cases.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

I think the license plate on the left of the picture has a 1940 date. If so, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator, that 15.4 cent gas is the equivalent of $3.48 today.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

The cheapest I remember was 23¢ a gallon during a gas war.
I don't remember any regular lower than 85 octane.
I do remember white gas, but forgot what it was used for.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

I can remember 26 during gas wars. I wasn't driving then. White gas used for Coleman lanterns and stoves at the time. Granma's cabin used Coleman lantern for lighting and a Serval propane fridge.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

Camp stoves.:D

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

Anyone remember canned heat? I've used it on camping trips. I think it's still available.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

As Alan notes, 25 cents for a gallon of regular is the lowest that I can remember in the midst of a gas war. That was in the late 1970s and only briefly.


And then there is the brilliance of Jimmy Carter's freezing of gasoline prices.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

David, the gas wars I spoke of were in the late 50’s, when stations on opposing corners of intersections would compete for customers. One would drop his price lower than the other only to find he had to lower it again sometimes in the same day to stay competitive.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

In my town gas was .15/gal in 1959. we used to buy .50 worth of gas and drive around most of the night

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

I read somewhere that if you take any major commodity and compare its relative price with 50 years ago it is cheaper (relatively) now to what it was then.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

That’s just not true. My most major commodity is my wife of 61 years and counting, and I can tell you right now that she’s not relatively cheap.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

In the early sixties where I lived, $5 was good for an evening's entertainment. Gas was $23.9 a gallon, so 2 bucks got you all you needed. Hauenstein or Cold Spring was $.25 a bottle at the muni. At the end of the evening, we got the "45 cents for a three course meal, at McDonalds!". (A burger fries, and a shake even.) I was making about three and a half bucks an hour at the local Red Owl supermarket (union job) and living at home, so life was good.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

Alan,


Same as in the '50s only twenty years later when the competition once again went bonkers.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

When I was a kid, the soda shop on the Avenue had 4 large (to me) fishbowls on the counter containing penny candies. He sold new comics for a dime, paid 3¢ for used comics and resold them for a nickel. I'd go collect bottles at the rear of the grocery next door to pay for a comic and a cone with two scoops and sprinkles for a nickel each. Just the other day, the local ice cream parlor changed their payment policy to plastic only.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

After that recent Crowdstrike update glich, it might not be a real good idea to go full on plastic. My wife and I went to a local restaurant last weekend and it was cash only. I still carry the stuff just for such emergencies as power failures and the like. Some of the young people these days can't do math without a calculator so power outages can shut a business down.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

Lead was introduced in the 20s as a way of increasing octane, which allowed higher compression. This gave better performance and efficiency. The higher the octane, the slower the burn.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

Early 70's in East Tennessee there was a gas war and a certain Amoco station had regular at 19.9 a gallon and hi-test was 21.9. Shaefer beer was 95 cents a six pack at Drug Fair. My how times have changed.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

Are you sure about that date? I remember the early seventies being the time of the oil embargo and lines at the gas pumps. It is etched in my mind, as I was the proud owner of a brand spankin' new '73 Rivera "Boattail":o, much to the derision of my best buddy, who had purchased a new Vega at the same time. Three years later, I was the one who was laughing when the aluminum engine in his nearly new Vega took a dump.:D

I would have purchased a couple of those six packs.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

Positive. I'd just graduated from college. 1971. Just think, a buck would buy 5 gallons of gas.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

I remember the 25 cent gas in the 70’s. I worked in our family business and my dad paid me a penny a gallon to pump the gas and a nickel if I put a quart of oil in. Everyone got their oil checked and their windshield cleaned if they wanted it. Imagine telling having to pump a 100 gallons of gas to make a dollar. I hated seeing a Volkswagen Beetle show up.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

My wife of 56 years used to be a cheap date. Now probibly the most expensive commodity on the place
:D

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

I lied. We have not been married 61 years, it’s only been 58 years but feels much longer than that.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

I remember when my folks ran a country store which sold Gulf oil products around 1957. The common gas purchase for teenagers was "a dollar's worth", which would buy about 4 gallons of gas, if I remember correctly.

Al Hook

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

What is eye opening and very sad today is going to a gas station and looking at the previous transaction amount in the pump as some very small fixed amount like $10.00.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

Look on the bright side. It may have been someone out for a ride on their motorcycle.:)

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

- worked at an eight-pump gas station in high school 1963-'65.
Regular typically .28 cents. Ethyl typically .32 cents.
one diesel pump, one marine gas pump for cars trailering boats jammed in as well.

(busy place, cars coming in at both directions. (full service)

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

Gasoline in the 30s was very low octane, lead added a significant amount 8-10 numbers. Gasoline was mostly distilled from crude straight run gasoline and naphtha with octane in the 70s. That is why Model A and early v8 motors were such low compression ratios. Thermal cracking existed and Houdry fixed bed crackers made some gasoline out of heavier stuff. Most of the modern refinery processes to raise octane were developed in the 40s/50s like alkylation, residual coking, hydrocracking, platinum reforming, and catalytic cracking. Alkylation developed around 1940 made very high octane as it produces iso-octane(100 octane) and lead added made fighter plane aviation fuel. Today gasoline produced is up to 50% of crude oil distilled for high conversion refineries.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

How many remember the Standard Oil Training Stations? There were typically 8 trainees on duty at all times, all with freshly pressed white uniform, garrison cap, and blue bow tie. Several trainees would enthusiastically converge on every incoming car to deliver full service, including tire inflation, every window washed, etc. They would get brownie points for sales beyond gas, so they learned all the salesmanship tricks for oil, belts, tires, wiper blades.
Trainees being more prone to human error, they one time forgot to torque my Mother's lug nuts after a tire sale, resulting in an expensive teaching aid for the daily training classes.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

Very informative, thank you. May I add, before all that, gasoline was an unwanted byproduct from the production of kerosene.

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Factoring in inflation many commodities cost somewhat the same as they did 20,30, or 40 years ago. $3.50 gas now is similar to .30 cents in 1972 factored for inflation.

Re: Gasoline in the 30's and 40's
 

Yep and Henry ford didn't like it -He was making his own unleaded gas at the time