When gas was a waste product

Once upon a time, say... back in the 1800's when oilcompanies started drilling into the earth, they weren'tlooking for something to make gasoline out of.  Theywere in the business of making kerosene for oil lamps.Gasoline at the time was considered a waste product andwas often burned off so they could get to the good stuff.

A bit later on, when the guys involved in making

automobiles realized that gasoline would make an

excellent fuel it suddenly gained some value.

So that's when the gas pumps started sprouting up, right?

Well... no.

There weren't any gas pumps right away because

there weren't any gas stations.  Gasoline was sold

in a can right next to the kerosene.

Pumps used to fill the cans with kerosene

worked well with gasoline too.  That's when

the bright idea came along to add a longer hose to

the pumps that could be used to fill a car outside

of the store rather than filling the cans inside.

So what started as a waste product we now buy

on average 135 billion gallons a year.

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