Re: xkcd: Good and Bad Ideas

On 5/7/2024 5:48 PM, Alan wrote:

On 2024-05-07 15:21, Lynn McGuire wrote:

xkcd: Good and Bad Ideas
    https://xkcd.com/2929/
>
We would have lost WWII without leaded gasoline.  The bombers and fighters both required 100+ octane gasoline which was only achievable using massive quantities of tetra-ethyl lead in those days.

 1. You're such a tedious pedant.
 2. You're wrong on the facts.
 While having 100+ octane gasoline made more power possible, if they hadn't had it, engine manufacturers would still have built very effective engines.

Nope.  The best gasoline that the 1930s refineries could produce was 60 octane on a good day with no tetra-ethyl lead additives.  Bad days were 40 octane.  Loaded bombers and fighters needed their superchargers to take off and turbochargers to fly high.  Both of those additions required high octane gasoline back then.  My twin turbocharged truck requires a minimum of 87 octane and likes 90 octane with very modern technology on a V6 engine with up to six sparks per compression cycle and high precision fuel injection.
The refinery cat crackers did not get worked out until the 1960s and the hydrotreaters did not get worked out until the 1970s.  And all of the other refinery additives did not come about until the 1950s at the earliest.
Lynn