Thanks for your further comments of August 29th @ 10:16 a.m.
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In 1932 the Union Oil Company of California opened a number of service stations and started selling its’ brand new 76 gasoline, with a ‘’Spirit of ‘76’’ campaign, eventually changing the company’s name to Union 76 Oil Company of California.
At that time many gasoline companies advertised their gasoline as ‘’aviation grade’’ and the primary specification of all aviation grade gasoline has always been its’ –76° freezing point.
Why autoists in southern California State thought they needed a –76° freezing point gasoline, that even the Royal North West Mounted Police had no use for, only goes to show the nonsense of advertising.
But that was not why 76 gasoline was called ‘’76’’. The reason it was called 76 gasoline was because it was a ‘’76’’ octane motor ‘’spirit’’.
‘’Spirit of ‘76’’ is and was, a popular phrase that refers to the declaration of the 13 independent & free states on July 4th 1776, of both their independence and their creation of the United States of America. Consequently, the no. 76 is the most popular number in the U.S., the N.B.A. team of the Philadelphia 76ers being just another example.
Coincidently, when future United States President Thomas Jefferson took the temperature outside the Pennsylvania State House on July 4th, 1776, it was 76°.
The greatest barrier to the development of the hi-speed auto was engine knocking, or premature detonation, the cause of which was the amount of 2,2,4 trimethylpentane present, which was finally discovered in 1922.
In I928, the greatest chemist of the 20th century, Richard Marker, developed the octane rating scale. This is a measure of how resistant gasoline is to premature detonation. It is measured relative to a mixture of 2,2,4 trimethylpentane (an isomer of octane) and n-heptane. So a 76 octane gasoline has the same knock resistance as a mixture of 76% iso-octane and 24% n-heptane.
Looking back, it was discovered that gasolines in 1922 ranged from 40 octane to 60 octane. In the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the maximum highway speed limits of different states ranged from 20 m.p.h. to 40 m.p.h. It now seems that the reason for this was not to save folks, but to save engines.
There have been a number of 76 gasoline signs. In 1932 it was an upright orange rectangle with a large sharp italic blue ‘’76’’ in the center. Just slightly below the orange rectangle’s top edge was a thin blue horizontal line running completely across the rectangle, and just slightly above the orange rectangle’s bottom edge were two thin blue horizontal lines only a hair’s breadth apart, again running completely across the rectangle.
In 1933 the 76 gasoline sign was changed to an orange disc with, again, a large sharp italic blue number ‘’76’’ centered slightly towards the top. Just below the ‘’76’’, in small white thick block letters was the word ‘’UNION’’.
This may have been something to do with the 76 lucky piece that was issued in 1933. It was a 1/2 av.oz. copper coin, about 1 1/16’’ diameter.
reverse:
INCREASED
ANTI KNOCK
OF 76
TURNS WASTE
HEAT INTO
POWER!
On much Union 76 gasoline advertising in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, the federal Rt. 66 sign shield was shown, although no specific reference in the advertising was made to Rt. 66.
Early in the 1950s the orange disc signs dropped the ‘’UNION’’, slightly softened the sharp blue italic ‘’76’’, and slightly outlined the ‘’76’’ in white.
It is not known when the huge forecourt Union 76 gasoline orange ball signs first went up over service stations, but it seems it was about 1960. Some rotate only when they are lit at night, but some balls rotate all the time. They remain famous even today, as the only large three dimensional signs of any widespread business chain.
At first the huge orange ball signs reintroduced the ‘’UNION’’ again under the ‘’76’’, but this time the ‘’UNION’’ was in blue and outlined in white, like the ‘’76’’ itself. But in 1967 the orange ball signs removed the ‘’UNION’’ again.
Every year, just before Reformation Day, most Union 76 service station folks climb up to their huge 76 gasoline orange ball signs and turn them into giant pumpkin jack-o-lanterns.
Although the Union 76 orange ball sign is unique, the Union 76 orange disc sign is not, as it is an exact duplicate of the Gulf gasoline orange disc sign that the Gulf Refining Company has used since 1924. Strangely, Gulf has never complained, although both Gulf and Union 76 are huge companies. Maybe Gulf thought that ‘’GULF’’ is a word and ‘’76’’ is a number, so there was nothing to complain about.
But it appears the bigger and more powerful Gulf finally backed down after a quarter century. Until 1963 the Gulf gasoline orange disc sign had blue thick block lettering for ‘’GULF’’ in the disc center, the lettering outlined in white. So the Union 76 sign was an exact duplicate in every way.
In 1964, Gulf simply swopped the blue and white around, making ‘’GULF’’ white and slightly outlined in blue.
Later in 1964, Gulf brought the blue lettering back but made some of it lower case as ‘’Gulf’’, and centering it in a broad white strippish-style strip that ran horizontally across the center of the orange disc, the strip continuing on slightly beyond the disc edges.