Fill her up with Ethyl! Traditional Cache

Before the days of paper or plastic
 
Before the days of debit or credit
 
Before the days of pay at the pump
 
There was another choice.
 
Ethyl or Regular
 
Back in the day when you gassed up your car a real person actually came out and asked the question Regular or Ethyl? Then they proceeded to clean your windshield, check your oil, and tire pressure REALLY! That is back in the day when they were called service stations for a reason.

Ethyl was short for Tetraethyl lead lead
( For you Chemists (CH3CH2)4Pb)
 
 
On Feb. 2, 1923, the first Ethyl gasoline went on sale at a roadside station in Dayton.
In those days, gasoline caused car engines to knock or ping. It was not only annoying, but also potentially harmful to the engine.


Thomas Midgely and Charles Kettering, researchers for General Motors in Dayton, discovered that adding tetraethyl lead to the gas eliminated the problem. Kettering coined the resulting mixture “ethyl gasoline,” which was dyed red to distinguish it from regular gas.
 
 
This insignia on a gas pump promised antiknock Ethyl gas.
 
Source: OilHistory.com