Ethyl alcohol was an option, but:
> Kettering himself had designed the self-starter a decade before, wrote James Lincoln Kitman for The Nation in 2000, and the knocking was a problem he couldn’t wait to solve. It made cars less efficient and more intimidating to consumers because of the loud noise. But there were other effective anti-knock agents. Kitman writes that Midgley himself said he tried any substance he could find in the search for an antiknock, “from melted butter and camphor to ethyl acetate and aluminum chloride.” The most compelling option was actually ethanol.
> But from the perspective of GM, Kitman wrote, ethanol wasn’t an option. It couldn’t be patented and GM couldn’t control its production. And oil companies like Du Pont "hated it," he wrote, perceiving it to be a threat to their control of the internal combustion engine.
> TEL filled the same technical function as ethanol, he wrote: it reduced knock by raising the fuel's combustability, what would come to be known as "octane." Unlike ethanol, though, it couldn't be potentially used as a replacement for gasoline, as it had been in some early cars. The drawback: it was a known poison, described in 1922 by a Du Pont executive as "a colorless liquid of sweetish odor, very poisonous if absorbed through the skin, resulting in lead poisoning almost immediately." That statement is important, Kitman wrote: later, major players would deny they knew TEL to be so poisonous.
* https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/leaded-gas-poison-...
I’m an ICE fan but I think the opposite. Let every soccer mom and commuter use electric cars, even self driving cars if we have the technology. Electric is perfect for them.
For those of us who like combustion engines, we’ll be happy that the remaining supply of fossil fuels is kept around for enthusiasts and collectors, and not wasted. With expiring patents and less competition from the big automakers we might even get to see increasingly interesting technologies. Heck maybe in 2040 we’ll be able to 3D print replacement engine parts at home. The future could unlock all sorts of possibilities.
You seem to be arguing your point backwards to me. Lead was only outlawed when refining advanced to a level to permit economically viable high octane fuel without it.
The author would seem to argue they stopped looking for viable methods to avoid the problem when lead arrived, because its costs were pure externalities. Most of the problems with ICE are externalities. The NO burden in diesel for instance, or the PM10 thing, is not really any different to the lead problem. If you own stocks in Oil you don't care that its causing cancer to anyone who lives close to a road, or dumbing down kids, or causing global warning. Why would you?
I can't really disagree with your first point, But I suspect the future of jalopnik is to convince Americans (and it is mainly about Americans) to spend disposable income on either EV, or EV conversion of classic cars. If it sticks to its cylinders, it will become sidelined by the market shift: They'd rather try to define the shift and be part of the shift.
I love steam engines btw. I would totally love to have a stanly steamer, or the air pressure modifed 4-cylinder cars which started off silently because one cylinder was air forced and drove it until the other 3 started up some distance from your fine castle... But I don't see anyone selling me "Jalopnik for steam" which maybe is realistic, but sucks if you like steam.
If you love ICE, you won't like the future. It's going to be niche. Maybe Jalopnik is 25+_years ahead of the game here, which is (I freely admit) stupid.