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Presumably when Henry Ford started cranking out the first Model Ts there weren't any gas stations yet. I mean there wasn't yet a large market to distribute gasoline to cars, so it seems like there wouldn't be any gas stations. Yet people did buy the cars and drove them, so they must have got gas from somewhere.

The only reason I mention the Model T is because it seems like after that point there would be enough consumers of gas to have a gas station. Before that, my vague impression is that cars were mainly used by hobbyists and inventors. Perhaps my reasoning is unsound.

Did they just buy fuel from the hardware store or something?

Model T

Mark Rogers
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    Presumably, you're asking about the situation in the US, because the Model T came out in 1908 which is 23 years after the first internal combustion-engine cars appeared in Europe. – Steve Bird Oct 14 '21 at 22:07
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    The only reason I mention the Model T is because it seems like at that point there would be a enough consumers of gas to have a gas station. Before that, my vague impression is that cars were mainly used by hobbyists and inventors. Perhaps my reasoning is unsound. – Mark Rogers Oct 14 '21 at 22:38
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    @MarkRogers no, that's sound reasoning, but kinda weirdly formulated imho. There probably were gas stations in large cities, but i think its a bit like electric vehicles right now: most people who have this newish technology fill it up at home (where those enthusiasts of back then would have a stash of fuel), or know the few spots (apothecaries, or now e-chargers) where you can – Hobbamok Oct 15 '21 at 08:13
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    What do you doubt at eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filling_station#History about history of such places for Germany & USA? – LаngLаngС Oct 15 '21 at 10:21
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    @MarkRogers, please move all comments into the question body. The question should contain all you know. The longer the comment string, the less likely you are to get a good answer. – MCW Oct 15 '21 at 10:27
  • @LаngLаngС - I started to realize that there might be a wikipedia article on it, right as I posted the question. My bad. – Mark Rogers Oct 15 '21 at 12:55
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    Yes, exactly. Containers of suitable fuel were bought at the hardware store. – JDługosz Oct 15 '21 at 15:27
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    According to this site: "early versions of the famous Model T ran on either ethanol or gasoline, utilizing a knob on the dashboard that allowed the driver to toggle the carburetor setting, depending on the predominate fuel mix within the tank." and says Ford's first vehicle was alcohol-only. – JimmyJames Oct 15 '21 at 15:47
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    The other piece to this is that as kerosene for lamps was supplanted by the electric light bulb, Rockefeller needed a new market for petroleum products. Gasoline had been considered a waste product and was just dumped on the ground. He started using internal combustion engines run on gasoline in his own operations. Standard oil already had a vast distribution network. – JimmyJames Oct 15 '21 at 15:53
  • This reminds me of the "Back To Future" movie where they were trying to figure out how to fuel a car that had time-traveled to the 19th century. They tried using alcohol from a saloon. – JoelFan Oct 15 '21 at 19:51
  • @JoelFan as long as you can tune it (or whatever the equivalent in an older non computer controlled engine is) you can run a reasonably wide variety of alternate fuels in an engine. Alcohol will damage rubber seals/etc in non-flexfuel vehicles, but that's an extended use issue. If you can't tune anything it gets iffier since you'll be running the engine out of spec, but you still might be able to get away with it in an emergency (especially if you stay at lower power levels). – Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight Oct 17 '21 at 05:22
  • @DanIsFiddlingByFirelight, ok but they needed to get it up to 88mph :) – JoelFan Oct 17 '21 at 17:11

5 Answers5

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The first cross-country automobile journey was run by Bertha Benz in 1888.:

With no fuel tank and only a 4.5-litre supply of petrol in the carburetor, she had to find ligroin, the petroleum solvent needed for the car to run. The solvent was only available at apothecary shops, so she stopped in Wiesloch at the city pharmacy to purchase the fuel.

The mentioned Ligroin was a cleanser. Still today some variants of petrol are used to clean things. So I guess it was a similar situation in the US, you had to look for drug stores to get petrol.

The "first gas station" is mentioned in the German Wikipedia (including a picture of the pharmacy and a plate as first gas station.

Glorfindel
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knut
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    So this raises more questions for me! Why did it not have a fuel tank? What was its mpg? I.e. how far could it go on those 4.5l? – Tim Oct 15 '21 at 13:34
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    Also when it says “cross country” I imagined it meant border to border. I think a more accurate description is “first intercity automobile journey” – Tim Oct 15 '21 at 13:36
  • Mannheim to Pforzheim is about 90 km or 55 miles – Henry Oct 15 '21 at 15:06
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    @Tim At the time, a journey of a few dozen miles was remarkable. Early cars didn't carry much fuel because they only did short, round-trip journeys. It's the same reason a lawnmower doesn't carry more than a few liters of fuel. – Nuclear Hoagie Oct 15 '21 at 17:15
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    @Tim Claims at the time were up to 21 mpg, I've read. One reason the Model T's top mpg is pretty similar to some modern values despite engine improvements is the weight. According to WIkipedia, the Model T (700kg) was about half of a Ford Focus (1400kg), or a third of an F-150 (2100kg). Tangentially, Vaclav Smil in Numbers Don't Lie points out that modern cars with a single driver have one of the worst weight-to-payload ratios of all modern transportation methods... – Luke Sawczak Oct 15 '21 at 19:31
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    @LukeSawczak interesting. And also tangentially, but they’re also incredibly space inefficient - both when moving on the roads, but also at rest (which accounts for about 95% of their life). From an outsider’s perspective it must be so strange that so many cities have adopted it as the primary transportation system! – Tim Oct 15 '21 at 19:37
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    @Tim: One major benefit that individual autos do provide is that people are not stuck with existing routes, someone can choose to go from most any place to any other place at any time without having to change vehicles along the way. The closest alternative I've encountered in sci-fi is sort of single passenger rail, where the roads are entirely replaced by a rail network with fully automated 'cars', being sent from central dispatch and then used by the next passenger after drop off. Existing passenger rail requires extreme population density at both ends to make any sense at all. – SoronelHaetir Oct 15 '21 at 20:01
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    @SoronelHaetir that’s true in some situations, but in reality isn’t accurate. In busy cities there is limited parking (because of the value of the land), which means one has to drive to a car park, and then walk / public transit the rest of the way - hence the existence of Park and Ride services. If one lives close enough to the city centre, it makes more sense to take the bus / tram / electric scooter / bike / taxi - as they do stop a, or closer to, the true destination. Of course it does work in the suburbs, which is why cars are so popular. – Tim Oct 15 '21 at 20:10
  • @LukeSawczak: That's comparable to a Geo Metro or a Honda Civic hatchback from the mid 80s. Cars since then have just gotten ridiculously weight-inefficient. And EVs are getting even worse, not better. – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE Oct 16 '21 at 15:19
  • @LukeSawczak a more important reason for these old cars' good mileage is that it was measured at much lower speeds. If you were to operate a Ford Focus at constant 40 km/h, it would beat the Model T by a lot – just, this never happens, we drive our cars either so fast that air resistance causes massive losses, or on roads / traffic situations which require braking/accelerating/idling all the time, which just throws away kinetic energy. – leftaroundabout Oct 17 '21 at 16:14
  • Cars allow point to point service and add huge time savings for drivers. – paulj Oct 17 '21 at 23:38
  • @tim, think "cross-country" in terms of running, small aircraft, or horseback riding. It just means a trip of reasonably long distance. You are not crossing a "country" (i.e. a political entity) but you are crossing "the country", i.e. the open spaces, similar "we have a house in the country". – JoelFan Nov 03 '21 at 04:07
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From Wikipedia:

The T engine was built as a gasoline engine. While not engineered specifically for multifuel ability, its simple, robust design allowed it to successfully run on a variety of combustible fuels including benzene, ethanol, or, with various available after-market attachments, kerosene.

Of these, distilled ethanol would have been commonly available for human consumption, disinfectant and lamps. Kerosene was a common fuel for lamps. Benzene was also commonly used for cleaning purposes until 1920s when it was discovered to be carcinogenic.

jpa
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Referring to "The Complete Motorist", by AB Filson Young (1904 edition)

"Petrol and paraffin oil should be kept in a separate building; the roughest little cabin will do as long as it is thoroughly ventilated; but these storesshould on no account be kept in any building adjoining either motor-house, stables, harness-room, or the living quarters of the servants"

(presumably, in order of importance!)

If petrol is stored in the ordinary two-gallon tins, any rough outhouse that can be locked up will serve the purpose; but if it is desired to store petrol in bulk, special tanks will have to be constructed and a special licence obtained".

So, you generally filled up at home, and either re-filled your 2-gallon tanks at the dealer, or had a delivery to your specially built storage. But:

"But with the present facilities for obtaining petrol at short notice few motorists would find it necessary to store it in such large quantities"

So, even by 1904, this was going out of fashion in favour of filling up on the road. Even though valve seat grinding was something the driver was expected to do as routine maintenance.

As for who could afford a car, expenses are quoted as £84 a year, affordable by a country doctor, and indeed £50 cheaper than his previous horse and carriage! (Petrol was 1 shilling per gallon, for a 25mpg car, doing about 5000 miles a year on mainly local journeys)

user_1818839
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Not to disagree with other answers, but to add:

They didn't.

The early adopter of automobiles (pre mass production) were all wealthy and almost always had a chauffeur on staff. This is more than a driver as we may think today, but someone who also knew and could work on the engine, and really, most any other part of the vehicle. These chauffeurs were also responsible for fuel. Although it may have been acquired by another servant responsible for purchasing in general.

Even if they want to drive themselves, the car would be prepared for them.

As for where the chauffeurs got it - see knut's answer (imo) although jpa's also adds useful/relevant info.

disclaimer: I'm sure there are exceptions, and maybe even a period of wider adoption prior to gas stations becoming commonplace that disproves my answer - but in general

Steve Bird
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TCooper
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    Do you have evidence for this claim? Typically, the early adopters are the nerds who don't mind getting their literal (and now metaphorical) hands dirty tinkering with the internals of an unreliable contraption, while wealthy non-enthusiasts wait until the technology has stabilized enough to be confident they won't be sleeping in a barn. – chrylis -cautiouslyoptimistic- Oct 15 '21 at 22:25
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    @chrylis You're misinterpreting this in the context of modern tech which is within the buying power of most people. Cars back then were expensive - think of buying a brand-new 50-foot yacht today, and you're on the right lines. And then think of who buys brand-new 50-foot yachts today, and whether they do all their own maintenance or whether they pay someone else, and again you're on the right lines. – Graham Oct 16 '21 at 08:48
  • I have to imagine that the early adopters of cars comprised both rich people who hired a chauffeur, and rich people who preferred to get their hands dirty with the cars themselves. (I recently replaced my car's battery myself even though the store I bought it from would have done it for free.) But that's all conjecture on my part—some actual evidence would be nice to see. – Tanner Swett Oct 16 '21 at 11:25
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    I would further add that if you are a wealthy tinkerer and you do not need to go someplace then you can pay a horseman to haul fuel to your stuck car. If you have to go somewhere you can ride a train. Why would you care much about the lack of gas stations? – emory Oct 16 '21 at 13:34
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    By 1904 this was a long way for the mark (source : "The Complete Motorist", Filsom-Young, who recommends light cars for reasonably well off tradesmen, and steam cars for doctors making lots of short local journeys! ) Electric cars are great in town; but limited to 40-50 miles until better batteries are invented. – user_1818839 Oct 16 '21 at 15:21
  • This is a good answer for cars before the Model T, but much less applicable once Ford is on the scene. – fectin Oct 17 '21 at 21:23
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The first dedicated gas station is established in St. Louis in 1905. A year before the Ford Model T was introduced. Automobiles already existed before Ford, but they were largely rich people's playtoys. The first Service station in 1907 and the first drive in gas station in 1913. So more likely vehicles had gas brought to them like many delivered products.

LazyReader
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