Share Coffee With Jeff #135: The Story of Leaded Gasoline

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September 17, 2017

Coffee With Jeff #135: The Story of Leaded Gasoline

29 minutes

Back in the early days of gasoline-powered automobiles, engines had a problem with knocking. The answer – or so the oil companies thought – was to mix highly toxic lead into the gas! This poison came out through the exhaust and into the air, the very same air that kids breathe … And this went on for over 60 years!

Show notes and links:

Tetraethyllead – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)

Octane rating – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)

Why Lead Used to Be Added To Gasoline (todayifoundout.com)

The Secret History of Lead (thenation.com)

Lead for Life – the history of leaded gasoline – an excerpt (youtube.com)

Regular Unleaded: The CC Patterson Story (youtube.com)

Children, Pollution, and Why Scientists Disagree by Colleen F. Moore (goodreads.com)

Looney Gas and Lead Poisoning: A Short, Sad History (wired.com)

The Most Important Scientist You’ve Never Heard Of (mentalfloss.com)

Charles F. Kettering and the 1921 discovery of tetraethyl lead | (environmentalhistory.org)

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