Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Showcase and Stories, Petroliana 1933 Nebraska Ethanol Station

Thank you to Robert Stephens for this tip and image.



This 1933 Lincoln, Nebraska gas station sold ethanol way back then. A recreation of the historic Earl Coryell Service Station will be on display September 12-14 at Husker Harvest Days near Grand Island, Nebraska. If anyone can provide a photo of this current station display, we would all appreciate it.

Newspaper article: http://www.swnebr.net/newspaper/cgi-bin/articles/articlearchiver.pl?159063

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Jim "Oldgas" Potts
Your host and moderator

Jim, here's another link to today's Omaha World Herald.
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=46&u_sid=2241333
Pic is small and the whole article isn't on the web but nice that his station is there showing everyone we had a good thing going even then. Had we pursued this type of fuel, would history have been different???
HAGD
Rod van Pelt

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Anybody know what kind of pumps those are??

Clear vision of some sort I would say...

There is a differnt paint scheeme for ya.
Brandon

Could be Hayes or Wichita pumps.
Rod

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CLEAR VISION 206

Dude that is flipping cool!!!!

I know where there is one of those pumps sitting for sale and never liked them, off to buy it tommorow. I am going to have the Fast Signs shop make the corn sticker for me. That is going to be one rocking pump! Just as I was getting board with the paint details I thought I was limited too... I will post it in time when I get all this other stuff done and out of the way...


Travis E. Towle
Topeka, Kansas

785-357-1004

Well darn! I went to buy the clear vision today and it is the round one... so I passed on it again.

Does anyone have an un-restored CLEAR VISION 206 they would part with - I prefer VERY BAD CONDITION PUMPS as they are more challenging for me to restore.


Let me know...


Travis E. Towle
Topeka, Kansas

785-357-1004

I was watching the history channel last night about altenative fuels and the showed this exact pic. They were talking about how we once were enviormentally friendly until oil became so cheap. Man I wonder what happened to those cheap days?

Brandon, I saw that show too.... What about that grass that they were converting into fuel? Man.... I've got 35 acres of that stuff, and the only thing that burns that around here is the horses!!!!!

In this month's issue of "Check the Oil" Ian Byrne's article "letter from Europe'" discusses alcohol based fuels abroad and here in the U.S. He also discusses several reasons why it wasn't promoted by our government in the past.
Also, If you have the CTO calendar, the picture of September's station is labeled Cedar Rapids, Iowa, although it is actually Cedar Rapids, Nebraska. Ian points out the error in his article.
I have burned Gasahol/ethanol in my vehicles for many years. I wish I could burn the E85. Maybe they'll put out a blend between the
10% and the 85%.
HAGN
Rod van Pelt

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Another thing the promoter's of E85 aren't telling the public - Alcohol powered vehicles require TWICE the volume of fluid for the same power level.

Translation: you'll get a little better than half the mileage you were getting on gasoline running the E85 blend.

Cost wise - not a real good choice since the E85 is only a few cents less than regular gasoline.

Later . . .

Jim

Here is a website that has that same picture. Tells the history of Ethanol dating back to the 1800's.
http://www.radford.edu/~wkovarik/papers/fuel.html#economics

And if you want to go further, there are people that say it actually takes more than one gallon of fossil fuel to produce one gallon of Ethanol.
Here is a link to those facts.
http://www.energyjustice.net/ethanol/

Part of the cost of gas price jumps that never got told this summer was that the price of an actual gallon of Ethanol to mix with gas jumped to over $5.00 a gallon.

Chuck

Well, you can hear about anything you want to about Gasahol and Bio-Diesel, which is made from Soy beans. I personaly have had good experiences with it and the advantages out weigh the problems.
In 1970 my owner's manual for my snow mobile said not to use gasahol because it would ruin rubber seals in the fuel system and "draw" moisture. However, They also recommended adding HEET, which is nothing more or less than alcohol, to the fuel system to avoid freezing of the moisture and plugging the fuel filter??? In '82 my new car owner's manual said not to burn ethanol/gasohol or the warranty would be void. Were they paid by some oil company to print this?? After the warranty period was over I burned Gasahol with no problems.
You're right E-85 may give less milage, I've never heard "half the milage" and it should be a lot cheaper. The price is set by the station owner and you know how much that can vary within the same company by just driving a few blocks or miles. For an example: the price of crude has dropped a lot lately but the retailers here in my area haven't passed this on to us as much and as quickly as when the price of crude goes up. I really can't see much difference in gas milage between the 10% Gasahol and straight gasoline and here it is up to 10 cents per gallon for the same octane rating.
A couple of months ago my mechanic pulled my plugs from my engine that has 130,000 miles on it and said he would not recommend replacing them as they looked good.
The fact that it is cleaner burning has prompted many states, which have pollution problems, to mandate it be sold especially in the winter time. Colorado, if I'm not mistaken is one of these states.
GM and Diamler-Chrysler are really starting to advertise the fact that they are making a lot of "Flex Fuel" models as a lot of people see this as maybe a step towards geting away from our dependence on foreign oil. Many of us would rather the American farmers got some help than the importing companies.
There are cheaper forms of energy available to make Gasahol than Gasoline or Diesel. There is a Gasahol plant in Ovid, Colorado that is Cow MANURE fired. I know we could even make fuel from the methane in Cow manure, sugar beets etc.
Brazil, no to long ago a 3rd world country, now makes their fuel from sugar cane and imports very little. Their economy has really turned around. Would our economy get a boost if we imported none instead of 60%?
JMTC
Rod



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[This message has been edited by danceswithpumps (edited 09-23-2006).]