The surprising thing you didnt know about petrol | Drive Flashback
The terms ‘petrol’ and ‘bowser’ might seem generic today but did you know they were actually both once brand names?
Story by Pedr Davis originally published in Drive on 1 October, 1999.
The ease of ‘filling up’ is something we take for granted, but it was no easy thing in the early days of motoring.
Many cars ran on kerosene oil which gave starting problems but was slightly less difficult to obtain than the more volatile gasoline.
At first, gasoline was supplied in stone jars but later sold in one-gallon (4.5-litre) cans known as ‘tins’.
Naptha (inflammable oil distilled from coal) was also used, as was a distillate in the paraffin series, known as benzene. The latter was widely available because painters used it as a solvent.
A variation on the name – Benzine – was registered by Pratt as a trade name for a particular brand of distillate. ‘Benzine’ became a generic term for motor spirit and was commonly used in Australia long after modern gasolines became available.
In those very early days, the word ‘petrol’ was a trademark and seldom used. The first man to bring Petrol motor spirit here was F. B. Roche who later became the managing director of the early Australian car-builder Tarrant.
Roche imported the new Petrol brand from Carless, Capel and Leonard, a London company which had coined the name “petrol”.
The first shipment arrived in Australia in July 1899 aboard the SS Buteshire and was sold for 11 pence per gallon, equivalent to two cents per litre.
No matter what you called your fuel, supplies were irregular at best, so motorists setting out on a long trip would load their cars with dozens of tins.
In 1904, Vacuum Oil Company began importing Pratt’s Motor Spirit. This was later sold as Plume Benzoline and later still the name was changed to Mobilgas.
During [the first world war], Neptune Oil Company imported 20,000 cases of motor spirit which it labelled Waratah brand. The new trade name was soon known throughout the nation because the enterprising company installed kerbside pumps at garages.
These hand-operated pumps were known as Bowsers because a Canadian subsidiary of the US firm – S. F. Bowser & Co – had introduced the concept here, setting up in Castlereagh Street, Sydney, in 1914. Bowser advertised a combined underground storage tank with a pump which delivered measured quantities of fuel and indicated the amount delivered.
In 1924 COR/BP pioneered the production of motor spirit containing tetraethyl lead to reduce the detonation of fuel mixture in high-compression engines.
Leaded fuel quickly became the only type used in Australia for petrol-fuelled vehicles and remained so until 1986 when all new cars were required by law to be fitted with engines which ran on unleaded fuel.
So, what happened next?
Today, of course, ‘petrol’ is a generic term for petroleum-based fuel, not only in Australia, but in most other countries of the British Commonwealth, the main exception being Canada where its proximity to the United States ensures the term ‘gasoline’ or ‘gas’ is prevalent.
It’s a different story in continental Europe where the French refer to petrol as l’essence and in particular l’essence sans plomb (unleaded petrol).
Germany uses the term benzin, a throwback to fuel’s early days where it was commonly called ‘benzine’, while in Italy benzina refers to petrol and gasolio is the name of diesel. One can only imagine how confusing this might be to some American tourists when the time comes to fill up the tank of their rented Fiat Pandas.
You’ll also need to on alert to ensure you’re using the right ‘bowser’ in Spain where petrol is called gasolina sin plomo and diesel is simply known as gasoil. It’s a similar story in Portugal where gasolina is petrol, and gasóleo diesel.
Sweden revers to bensin while in Japan レギュラ, pronounced re-gu-la, refers to, unsurprisingly, regular unleaded, and ハイオク, pronounced hai-o-ku is the name of high-octane premium unleaded, while 軽油 – kei-yu or di-se-ru – is the name for diesel.
What are you experiences of travelling the world and needing to fill up? Have you ever wondered which is the right pump? Let us know in the comments below.
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