I find it funny that in an age where oil and gas prices are beginning to make people change the way they carry out their every day lives, and now have to seriously consider how much fuel is going to cost them, and budget for it. Now isn’t it funny how the news and governments mention nothing about good ol’ Henry Ford and his thoughts in the 1930’s, no not his thougts his actual development of a car made from hemp and wait it also ran on it!
Hmm… I wonder if the reason no one ever hears about a push for this type of RENEWABLE resource to be legal and have some real R&D put into this is because of the huge grip that the Oil and Gas industry has over the Governments and its contributions to political parties, is it just me or is it time for some pprogressive thinking and action, cause I am strating to get fed up with cheap solutions being all around us:
"Henry Ford, inventor of the Ford automobile, recognized the utility of the hemp plant. He constructed a car of resin stiffened hemp fiber, and even ran the car on ethanol made from hemp. Ford knew that hemp could produce vast economic resources if widely cultivated. Ford’s optimistic appraisal of cellulose and crop based ethyl alcohol fuel can be read in several ways. First, it can be seen as an oblique jab at a competitor. General Motors had come to considerable grief the summer of 1925 over another octane boosting fuel called tetra-ethyl lead, and government officials had been quietly in touch with Ford engineers about alternatives to leaded gasoline additives. As well, by 1925 the American farms that Ford loved were facing a growing economic crisis that would later intensify into the depression of the 30’s. Although the causes of the crisis were complex, one potential solution was seen in creating new markets for farm products. With Ford’s financial and political backing, the idea of opening up industrial markets for farmers would be translated into a broad movement for scientific research in agriculture that would be labeled “Farm Chemurgy.” The Ford Motor Company, in the 1930s, created charcoal fuel, methanol, and other compounds out of Cannabis-Hemp at their Iron Mountain, Michigan plant. It seemed Fords plans were well under way to engineering an era of Farm Chemurgy Why Henry’s plans were delayed for more than a half century remain a point of controversy to this day: Ethanol has been known as a fuel for many decades. Indeed, when Henry Ford designed the Model T, it was with the expectation that ethanol, made from renewable biological materials, such as Cannabis, would be a major automobile fuel. Surprisingly however, gasoline emerged as the dominant fuel in the early twentieth century. This has been speculatively attributed to the ease of operation of gasoline engines with the materials then available for engine construction, to a growing supply of cheaper petroleum from oil field discoveries, and the intense lobbying by petroleum companies for the federal government to maintain steep alcohol taxes, thereby restricting the economic feasibility of ethanol based fuels.
Many bills proposing a National energy program that made use of Americas vast agricultural resources (for fuel production) were killed by sensationalist smear campaigns launched by vested petroleum interests. Gasoline had many recognized disadvantages as an automotive resource when compared with Cannabis-hemp fuel. The “new” fuel had a lower octane rating than ethanol, was much more toxic (particularly when blended with tetra-ethyl lead and other compounds used to enhance octane), generally more dangerous, and contained harmful threatening air pollutants. Petroleum was more likely to explode and to burn accidentally, gum would form on storage surfaces and carbon deposits would form in combustion chambers of the engines using it. Pipelines needed to be constructed for distribution from “area found” to “area needed”. Petroleum was much more physically and chemically diverse than ethanol and as such necessitated complex refining procedures to ensure the manufacture of a consistent quality “gasoline” product. And yet even with its obvious serious shortcomings when compared to cellulose fuels, Gasoline managed to become the primary fuel for the new automobile age, spurned on by huge cash incentives and infusions of several corporate entities wielding huge media budgets. The advertisement campaigns were sensational and relentless in coercing the general opinion towards acceptance of the inferior new gasoline over the ethanol based fuels."
I dunno people is it just me or does it seem like we are being scammed!!!