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Driving Without Gas
Preface
Energy is emerging as the number one domestic issue of the 1980s. Almost everywhere motorists are beginning to think about alternatives to gasoline. Words like Gasohol, ethanol and methanol are becoming more and more familiar. These and other alternate fuels – and innovative cars – are getting more and more attention. But work on these products, work on ways to drive without gas, has been going on for years.
The crisis in petroleum supplies in 1973 alerted the American public to the precarious relationship between world oil production and our prodigal driving habits. It also touched off a few thoughtful investigations of alternatives to oil-based motor fuels.
A group of scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratories, using their own family automobiles, rediscovered the merits of alcohol fuels in a series of tests that demonstrated their feasibility in conserving gasoline, improving performance, and reducing noxious emissions. I say rediscovered because Europeans, following World War I, took inventory of their meager oil supplies and used strong legal measures to extend them and to further the development of alcohol fuels, gasogens, and other alternatives. Conservation was urged by the enormous taxes on large cars. This was part of a planned defense against economic and military disaster.
Although this book was prompted by the activity of the Lincoln Laboratory pioneers, it draws heavily on historical material from my library, as well as the experiences of many sports car and steam car enthusiasts, hobbyists and professionals. Up-to-date information on the latest automotive developments has been provided by many generous individuals, including those mentioned here.
Some of the material dates from 1942, when my files on gasoline substitutes began to grow. Another time of research and collection came after the 1973 – 74 crisis at the pumps. The emphasis then was on methanol, and my book Methanol and Other Ways Around the Gas Pump was the result.
Much of that material appears here. Since 1978, there has been a wave of popular enthusiasm for Gasohol, a blend of 90 percent unleaded gasoline and 10 percent ethanol (grain alcohol). The potential of ethanol as a long-range alternative to gasoline does not equal that of methanol. Hence, the reader may find that methanol appears oftener, as the specific kind of alcohol fuel, whereas ethanol would have been appropriate, too. The difference, as it affects the performance of an engine, is slight, but methanol is far more difficult to produce.
Friends too numerous to mention have sent me clippings, tested my credibility and made suggestions. Charles E. MacArthur, Scott Sklar and William A. Stevenson gave me support, moral and physical, and Richard F. Merritt, head of the Alcohol-Alternate Fuel Institute, maintained the flow of Gasohol news to me from Washington, D.C. Dr. Thomas B. Reed, whose enthusiasm and perspicacity first stimulated this book, gave much time to reading and revising parts of the draft. Thanks to them all, and to my patient wife, Clarinda, the papers that have obstructed half our house for years have been compiled between these covers.
J.W.L.
Copyright 1980 by Garden Way, Inc.
This material provided under "Fair Use" guidelines.