Ask old-timers what they’ve run their Model T on beside gasoline, and the responses will start to sound like the list of potential fuels for the Chrysler Turbine car; that is, anything combustible: coal gas, diesel, kerosene, even granddad’s corn likker. But the truth regarding the T – in this matter as well as many others – is often obfuscated by the century-plus worth of legends that have accumulated around the iconic car, and after researching the matter, we’ve found no evidence that Ford designed the Model T to run on any fuel other than gasoline.
As the multi-fuel Model T legend – easily found across the Internet – goes, Ford incorporated a device on the dashboard of the Model T to facilitate switching, at will, from gasoline to ethanol. Other sources contend the Model T was also designed to run on kerosene and benzene. The story further asserts that Henry Ford’s attempts to make ethanol a standard automobile fuel were thwarted by John D. Rockefeller’s push for Prohibition, an assertion that we’ve already (__debunked__).
Source: cr4.globalspec.com
Image by Charles Thonney from Pixabay
