I had to decide whether this should be in history or vehicles, since it has both combined in this thread, but since it is about the Ford Model T, I am putting it here in the vehicle section. This is an amazing article that I was just reading today, about the development of the Ford cars, and also how Prohibition might have changed the future of vehicle fuels. When Henry Ford developed his Model T, he designed it to run on what we call ethanol, which could be made from fermenting almost any kind of grain or plant, and he thought that this would provide plenty of fuel for cars. However, he also designed the car to run on gasoline, made from oil, because the driver might not have both fuels available. The driver could flip a switch in the dash that changed the engine from the settings needed for oil to those needed for ethanol. However, when prohibition came into the picture, ethanol was declared illegal, even though it was a fuel and not a drinking alcohol. It is even possible that John D. Rockefeller, who had a lot of money invested into oil, might have pushed for prohibition as a way to force cars to run on oil-based fuel instead of plant-based fuels. Here is the article about Ford and ethanol. It is a short article, and well worth the time to read it. https://www.fuelfreedom.org/tag/model-t/
The Model T engine had such a low compression ratio (4.5:1) that it could run on fuels with very low octane ratings. Hal
@Hal Pollner Quite right, but I suspect you already know this:\ "In terms of its octane rating, ethanol has a rating of 113. Years ago, aviation fuel was less than that...... Frank
Yes, Frank...I already knew this, but I wanted to educate others about the venerable "Tin Lizzie". The "T-Bone" had 3 pedals on the floorboard. The pedal in the middle was there to separate the 2 outer pedals. Harold
@Hal Pollner I think yer "funnin me anyway. How did one get reverse? My dad told me: The three pedals on the floor of the Model T were for the brake on the right, reverse in the middle to make the Model T go backwards, and a pedal on the left to shift the gears from low to high speed. Frank
I am no authority about fuels, either, @Bess Barber ; but from what I was reading about the original use of the Model T, it wasn’t running on a combination of fuels, but had the ability to be adjusted so as to run on either alcohol or on gasoline, depending on which was available. While alcohol has a much higher octane, it also needed more of the mixture than gasoline did , to run properly. Because Rockefeller owned Standard Oil, and he could see that the future of vehicles that could run on alcohol would be detrimental to him, he donated almost $4 million dollars towards the temperance movement, which eventually became prohibition. Rockefeller also campaigned in Congress for prohibition, because he knew that it would stop people from easily making their own fuel for their cars and farm machinery, since the prohibition act made any kind of alcohol production illegal. Here is a really informative article that explains more about John D. Rockefeller and his influence on the blocking of alcohol as a fuel . https://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/07/cut-fuel-costs-and-fight-fascism-use.html
@Yvonne Smith On a parallel note of influence, in the very early 20th. Century, Los Angeles had one of the most advanced systems of Public mass Transportation of any place in the U.S. Only details I recall are that General Motors, seeing the need to eliminate public transportation to sell individual motor cars, gradually bought the entire transit system, then scrapped it. Frank
. That is precisely correct, Frank! My dad used to tell me that if you needed a Panic Stop, you would turn your foot sideways and slam on all 3 pedals at once! This would lock up the transmission and apply the brakes at the same time! Hal
There are plenty of stories involving "quickie repairs" of the T-Bone, one being the replacement of connecting rod bearing inserts with bacon rind! Hal