This makes avery stable âsaltyâ water molecule.This property of water allows for the transport of nutrients vital to life in animals and plants.A drop of rainwater falling through the air dissolves atmospheric gases. When rain reaches the earth, itaffects the quality of the land, lakes and rivers.
Energy Use and the Internal Combustion Engine. The first gasoline-fueled, four-stroke cycle engine was built in Germany in 1876. In 1886, Carl Benz began the first commercial production of motor vehicles with internal combustion engines. By the 1890s, motor cars reached their modern stage of development.
Petroleum Technologies Timeline. When retired railroad conductor Edwin Drake struck oil in 1859 in Titusville, Pennsylvania, he touched off the modern oil industry. For the next 40 years the primary interest in oil was as a source of kerosene, used for lighting lamps. Then came the automobile and the realization that the internal combustion engine ran best on gasoline, a byproduct of the process of extracting kerosene from crude oil.