In the 1990 sci-fi comedy sequel Back to the Future Part III, intrepid time travelling late 20th century duo Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown find themselves trapped in Hill Valley, California, back in the year 1885. With their DeLorean time machine out of gas and it being, well, 1885, Doc and Marty are forced to take creative measures to accelerate their ride up to the required 88 miles per hour and get back to the future.
Doc Brown’s solution for this? An elaborate plan involving hijacking a moving train, pushing its boiler to the absolute limit and beyond of its structural capabilities as it careened towards a ravine, and then if it happened to all go well, the car would get up to 88 mph, thereby sending it back to the future. If not, well… the pair’s futures would officially be something neither would ever need to worry about again after they plummeted to their deaths.
But while this certainly makes for an awesome climax to one of the greatest trilogies of all time, 1885 was not that far removed from the age of the automobile; indeed, that very same year German inventor Karl Benz unveiled his Patent Motorwagen, widely considered history’s first practical, mass-produced car. Or, at least the Model 3 version was when 3 years later his wife Bertha Benz snuck out of the house before her husband got up, stole the car, and took the world’s first road trip- all to save her husband’s company, and rid him of his incessant self doubt. Along the way, she even invented the world’s first brake pad, among other tweaks she came up with along the way that were needed to improve the design for long distance travel. Much more on the genuinely incredible story of the world’s first road trip and the extreme gumption and ingenuity of Bertha Benz in the Bonus Facts later.
But back to Doc Brown- surely a man of his intellect and resourcefulness, a self proclaimed “student of all sciences” to the extent that when recruited to the Manhattan Project, the General who did so questioned why Doc Brown had a book on needlepoint, to which Doc replied he didn’t like to dismiss anything, as any bit of knowledge could lead to a breakthrough… sure this man of all men could simply have made his own gasoline and gotten back to 1985 the regular way… right?
Well, put on your life preserver and crank up the Power of Love as we go Back to the…origins of the petroleum industry, the first usable gas for automobiles, and figure out whether doc brown should have been able to figure all this one out in the few days he had to work with.
Author: Gilles Messier
Editor: Daven Hiskey
Host: Daven Hiskey
Producer: Daven Hiskey
0:00 Intro
4:10 Origins of the Petroleum Industry
8:38 A World Changing Breakthrough
12:08 The Fuel Doc Brown Had Access to in 1885 Hill Valley
13:17 The Octane Issue
15:19 Could Doc Brown Have Solved the Octane Issue?
20:37 The Easiest Octane Solution of All
22:30 Summing Up Whether Doc Brown Could Have Just Made Usable Gasoline
23:41 The OG Car and the First Road Trip That Saved It
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