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It's 1913
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You're driving along in your brand new Ford Model T.
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The roof is down, the sun is out, life is good.
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But you're running out of gas.
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Luckily, the world's first gas station
just opened up around the corner.
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So you pull in and fill up your car
in seconds.
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This was a brand new concept at the time
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and it planted a seed that
would go on to change the world.
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The car market exploded
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and soon more than 150,000 gas stations
had been built all across the country
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giving people the freedom to travel like never before.
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Since then, gas stations went from being
dangerous fire hazards at the side of the street
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to ultraefficient pit stops, pumping out 3 billion gallons
of fuel around the world every day.
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We modeled the entire thing
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to show you the hidden engineering behind gas stations
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the 100-year quest to master them
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and the incredible mechanisms that make them work.
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In order to understand how gas stations work today
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we need to go back to a time before they even existed.
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Most people didn't have cars yet
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but kerosene was being
widely used to power lamps and stoves.
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To get it, you'd go to a hardware store
where an employee would pour it straight into a can
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a can and sell it to you.
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When cars started coming along, the kerosene would go from the store into a can and the customer would pour it
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into their car using a funnel.
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This was slow and dangerous
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and so there needed to be a safer
and more efficient way to pour kerosene.
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That's when American inventor
Sylvanus Bowser came up with the fuel pump.
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This was a hand-driven mechanism that squeezed kerosene
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from its container through a
one-way valve and out of a nozzle on top.
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One full crank would dispense exactly one gallon of fuel.
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Soon these pumps started being placed on city streets
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allowing cars to be filled up conveniently by an attendant
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but customers had no idea if they were
actually getting all of the fuel they paid for
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and so a few years later, the visible fuel pump was invented.
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The attendant would first pump the fuel
into a glass tank on top of the pump
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measuring it to an exact amount.
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Then, by opening a valve, gravity would
drain all of the fuel into the customer's car.
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These small curbside gas pumps
worked well in the early days
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when in 1900 there were only 8,000 cars in the whole US.
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But just 12 years later that number increased to 1.2 million
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and suddenly cars were everywhere.
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traffic jams started building up around every pump
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and the small 50-gallon tanks couldn't cope with the demand
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Worst of all, having all of the fuel stored above ground
meant that things could go catastrophically wrong.
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And so, in 1913, the Gulf Oil Company opened up
the first dedicated fueling station in Pittsburgh.
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Instead of a single pump, they placed
a much larger storage tank underground
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and connected it to six pumps
allowing multiple cars to fill up at the time.
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On its first day, it sold just 30 gallons of kerosene
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but the word quickly spread
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and by the end of the week, it was already selling
350 gallons per day for around 27 cents per gallon.
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Similar gas stations started opening up all over the country
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and the car became the ultimate key to freedom.
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But by the 1920s, most cars had
switched from kerosene to gasoline
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since it burned more easily and was more efficient.
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But this caused a new problem.
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Vapor.
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Kerosene had a flash point of 38°
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meaning that it wouldn't emit
flammable vapor until it reached that temperature.
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but for gasoline, the flash point was -40°
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and so it was constantly emitting flammable vapor into the air.
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This vapor would build up inside the tanks
and pollute the air whenever someone filled up their car.
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All it took was one small spark and
the customer would quickly become history.
00:03:34
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and like so many young men of his time,
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In order to turn gas stations
from dangerous fire hazards
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into efficient self-service pit stops
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some clever engineering had to happen.
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Up until this point, cars were
always filled up by a trained attendant
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but as competition started to rise
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gas station owners were
desperate to lower their prices
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and so in 1947 Frank Olrich
opened the first ever self-service gas station.
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By getting rid of the need for an employee,
he was able to lower the cost of gas
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from 23 cents per gallon
to just 18 cents per gallon
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drastically undercutting
the competition around him.
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but the idea of customers handling their own gasoline seemed dangerous
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and so self-service stations were
banned throughout most of the country.
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The problem was, customers
had no clue when their tanks were full
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and so gasoline would often
spill out all over the gas station.
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That's when engineers came up
with the automatic shut-off valve.
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This was a simple mechanical float
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placed inside the nozzle
that would rise and shut off the flow of fuel
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once the car was full.
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But deep underground
there was still one huge problem.
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Inside the huge storage tanks
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gasoline vapor would build up,
forming a layer of flammable gas.
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When it came time to refill the tanks, the vapor would get pushed out into the atmosphere
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creating an almighty fire hazard.
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On top of that, the steel tanks
would corrode over time
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leaking gasoline into the surrounding soil.
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Nowadays, these underground
gas tanks are made from fiberglass
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and they have dozens of hidden engineering details that all go into making them safe.
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Here's how it all works.
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When a truck comes
to refill the tanks every few days
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it connects to a valve on the surface
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and gasoline starts flowing into the tanks.
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As the level within the tank reaches around 95%
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a flapper valve flips up
and stops the flow of fuel
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making sure it can never be overfilled.
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To take care of the vapor, the truck connects
to a second valve at the top of the tank.
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As the gasoline is pumped
from the truck into the tank
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the vapor exits through this secondary
valve and gets pushed back into the truck.
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That vapor is then
returned to the processing plant
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cooled down, and turned back into usable fuel.
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When a customer goes to fill up their car
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a pump placed
at the bottom of the tank activates
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and starts sending gas up
through a series of pipes and filters
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into the fuel dispenser.
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From there it flows into the fuel nozzle
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which is perhaps the
most interesting piece of the puzzle.
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Back in the day, this
would have been a simple valve
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releasing gas into the car.
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Now it's a mechanical work of art
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that makes it impossible to overfill a car.
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As the fuel enters the nozzle
it pushes its way through a narrow opening.
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Small holes around the opening
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lead down a thin pipe to a
small opening at the tip of the nozzle.
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As the fuel flows, a
low pressure region forms here
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thanks to the Venturi effect.
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Because of this, air starts
being sucked in through the narrow pipe
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and into the opening
where it mixes with the gasoline.
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Another tube, also
connected to the narrow opening
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leads to a small compartment
containing a sealed membrane.
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This is where the magic happens.
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When the lever gets pressed,
it pivots around here
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and opens up a valve
allowing fuel to pass through.
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But the only thing holding
this part in place is a set of ball bearings.
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When your car is full, the fuel
covers the hole at the top of the nozzle.
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This cuts off the flow of
air being sucked into the system.
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And so the only other path
to get more air is through the other tube
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but it's completely sealed
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and so this negative pressure
sucks the air out of the sealed compartment
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creating a vacuum and lifting up the membrane.
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The ball bearings are now free to drop
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causing the whole lever system to fall
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closing the valve
and cutting off the flow of fuel.
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After the 70s, cars became
more efficient and required less trips to fill up
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and so the number of
gas stations started to decline.
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But thanks to 100 years of engineering
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gas stations became safe and mundane.
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Thanks to My Heritage for supporting this video
00:08:24
Get 14 days for free using the link below .
00:08:26
Thank you very much for watching
and I'll see you in the next video!
