Where Did Our "Dependence" on Oil Come From?

During these times of high gas prices, calls for renewable forms of energy, and claims of "dependence" on foreign oil, it can be instructive to think about why we use gas to power our cars.  To do so, we can look to the past and see what other types of engines (and thus fuel) automakers tried.   Here's some information on car from the early 1900's, the Stanley Steamer:

Steam cars unitize an external combustion (Rankine cycle) engine where the fuel source is consumed external to the engine. A steam boiler generates vast quantities of power for later use on demand unlike the internal combustion (Otto cycle) engine that must develop the needed power on demand. A Stanley steam engine provides four power impulses per crankshaft rotation similar to an 8-cylinder internal combustion engine. However, the power is applied uniformly for a longer length of the stroke than the hammer-like explosions common to gasoline or diesel engines. This provides the steam engine an advantage of more torque in a smaller package over what can be generated with a gasoline engine of equivalent rating.

In other words, the steam engine described provides more power with a smaller size... but the kicker (there's always one!) is that it takes awhile to produce that power.

Early Stanleys were fueled with gasoline but later models incorporated a two-fuel system of gasoline for the pilot and kerosene for the main burner. Kerosene, provided not only more heat energy per unit than gasoline, it was also safer and less expensive. Both the Stanley pilot that operates continuously as well as the main burner which operates on steam demand is based on the simple principles of the Bunsen Burner. In the Stanley the heat of the fire vaporizes the liquid fuel before the fuel vapor is fed through an orifice, mixed with air, and burned below the boiler. To start a Stanley a torch is used to preheat the vaporizing tube and light the pilot making the Stanley Steamer one of the few cars difficult to steal in anything less than 20 minutes. Fuel efficiency was roughly 10-12 miles to the gallon.

In other words, it took at least 20 minutes to get enough power to get it going... at least fast enough for a burglar.  Besides, the driver needed a working knowledge of plumbing... and a fuel source was needed to get the water hot.

A big reason we use gas in our cars today is that when cars were being developed, of all the fuels, gas gave the consumer the package of quick power efficiently.  We still find this to be the case today.  If we really want to kick this "dependence," we need to realize that beyond some limit, the price of gasoline will no longer make gasoline the efficient fuel source that it has been... and then through the power of the market and entrepreneurship, we'll move on to something else.

Here's some more stuff for the Stanley fans out there.