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> This was lead poisoning. ... Nobody knew. Good article. But just to note, lead was already a known poison at the time when it was added to gasoline. Signifi
by foofoo12 1y ago
> This was lead poisoning. ... Nobody knew.
Good article. But just to note, lead was already a known poison at the time when it was added to gasoline. Significant concerns were raised. Production was even halted for a while in the US due to health incidents.
- ants_everywhere 1y agoLead had been a known poison for nearly 2000 years when it was added to gasoline. The guy who owned the patent for leaded gasoline and who promoted its use even got lead poisoning himself https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.
- jihadjihad 1y ago> Environmental historian J. R. McNeill opined that Midgley "had more adverse impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth's history", and Bill Bryson remarked that Midgley possessed "an instinct for the regrettable that was almost uncanny".
- davnicwil 1y agoit's incredibly surprising to me that lead was added to gasoline specifically at all. I'd always assumed it was some expensive-to-remove byproduct of manufacture or something, so they left it in to save costs despite the risks. Why did this happen?
- JJMcJ 1y agoTetraethyl Lead was an octane raiser - an anti-knocking compound.
- pixl97 1y agoLead in gas increased compression rations and allowed us to build higher horsepower engines. Lead is still used in avgas for this reason. Engine knock was a big problem at the time.
- margalabargala 1y agoI wonder about lead levels in soil near gen aviation airports for this reason, and in the neighborhoods that sometimes get built on decommissioned runways.
- potato3732842 1y agoI assume it's pretty inconsequential because if it weren't I'd hear real people talking about it (like with lead paint, and various forms of soil contamination) and as it stands I only hear fake internet comment section hand wringers hand wringing about it.
- margalabargala 1y agoPer the article we're all commenting on that's maybe not the wisest assumption. What makes the difference between a fake hand wringer and a real one, by the way? Whether or not this happen to be standing near you at the moment?
- Der_Einzige 1y agoI'm sure you'd regard something like banning tail docking, ear cropping, or non medically necessary infant circumcision as similarly unimportant because only weird "chronically online" folks talk about it. "Just hand wringers". This is why the world is full of cruelty.
- LorenPechtel 1y agoAFIAK only permitted in some old engines that were designed to need the lead.
- ants_everywhere 1y agoaccording to the article > Oil companies and automobile manufacturers (especially General Motors, which owned the patent jointly filed by Kettering and Midgley) promoted the TEL additive as an inexpensive alternative superior to ethanol or ethanol-blended fuels, on which they could make very little profit. Functionally, as others have commented, it is there to reduce knocking. But lead was used instead of ethanol (aka alcohol) because it was more profitable despite being poisonous.
- kragen 1y agoIt also gave better gas mileage.
- marcosdumay 1y agoIt allowed people to use engines with better gas mileage, what is a different thing. Just adding the lead addictive to gasoline reduced your gas mileage. But it made better engines work.
- kragen 1y agoIt surely reduced it by a tiny amount compared to just straight octane, but ethanol reduced it by something like 10%. So using TEL instead of ethanol gave you about 10% higher gas mileage.
- consp 1y agoAt worst to get equivalent octane rating you lose about 4 percent in power density. In practice you won't notice due to the slightly more efficient burning of alcohol.
- kragen 1y agoI don't think that is correct.
- marcosdumay 1y ago
- chasil 1y agoAs I understand it, both tetra ethyl lead and ethyl alcohol are anti-knock agents. Lead was used because it was cheaper. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiknock_agent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiknock_agent
- consp 1y agoEthanol on its own is an anti knock agent. E85 is RON 105 for instance.
- potato3732842 1y agoEthanol has other downsides regarding corrosion and reacting with various organic and organic-ish (read: rubber) components. Those were bigger problems back then because everything was carbureted and they didn't have modern plastics.
- vunderba 1y agoThat guy's entire wikipedia page is an almost surreal read. For introducing lead into gasoline and the proliferation of CFCs, he was termed a "one-man environmental disaster". His death is equally fascinating. He invented a mechanical device to help him out of bed because of his polio-related infirmity, and ended up getting strangled by it.
- kragen 1y agoMidgley's paralysis, as I understand it, was probably not due to polio but to lead poisoning.
- ludicrousdispla 1y agoMaybe the mechanical device had also achieved AGI?
- fuzzfactor 1y agoThe article doesn't mention it, but at some point the yellow paint on the pencils that young students often chew on would have likely been pigment having high lead content.