https://aoghs.org/products/tetraethyl-lead-gasoline/ Oil History is Energy Education Thu, 05 Feb 2026 10:46:03 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://aoghs.org/products/tetraethyl-lead-gasoline/#comment-4665 Wed, 31 Jan 2018 21:14:35 +0000 https://aoghs.org/?p=25265#comment-4665 […] first sale of ethyl petrol! In 1923, anti-knock petrol containing tetra-ethyl lead (TEL) was sold following 5 years of […]

]]> https://aoghs.org/products/tetraethyl-lead-gasoline/#comment-4022 Thu, 10 Dec 2015 20:21:53 +0000 https://aoghs.org/?p=25265#comment-4022 […] General Motors scientists discover the antiknock properties of tetraethyl lead in 1921. American motorists are soon saying, “fill ‘er up with Ethyl.” In early internal combustion engines, “knocking” resulted from the out-of-sequence detonations of the gasoline-air mixture in a cylinder. This shock frequently damaged the engine. After five years of lab work to find an additive to eliminate pre-ignition “knock” problems of gasoline, G.M. researchers Thomas Midgely Jr. and Charles Kettering discover the antiknock properties of tetraethyl lead. Tetraethyl lead’s danger to public health results in its phase-out beginning in 1976 and completed by 1986. Read more in Ethyl “Anti-Knock” Gas. […]

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