Most big cities had extensive electric trolleys you could hop on and off of for free. Walkable cities with decent public transportation that didn’t pollute the air!
And we replaced that so we could have a bunch of shitty cars burning leaded gasoline for decades…
Really explains the boomers and silent generation… And hell, Gen X probably grew up with some that sweet leaded gas fumes, and lead paint. And there’s still extensive lead pipes serving water.
There’s an episode of the Little Rascals where the kid wants to be a street car conductor. Not much demand for that job today. Boy, do they pick up the nickels!
Aren’t “lead additives” lead free? My dad had an old car that needed leaded, and I remember he’d put some additive every time he went to refuel. I recently found a bottle in our basement, it pretty clearly said “lead replacement” and at a glance, the ingredients didn’t seem to contain anything that sounded like lead
Makes sense. Aviation is all about certification and reliability, racing is performance above all else, and you’ll always find some old industrial machine in the back of a shop that has somehow been running since longer than anyone remembers.
Reminds me of how despite RoHS and all that, leaded solder is still a thing for some applications like (legacy) aviation and repairs (leaded and unleaded solder apparently don’t mix well, or rather, make things corrode or something like that)
American downtowns used to be sweet.
Most big cities had extensive electric trolleys you could hop on and off of for free. Walkable cities with decent public transportation that didn’t pollute the air!
And we replaced that so we could have a bunch of shitty cars burning leaded gasoline for decades…
Really explains the boomers and silent generation… And hell, Gen X probably grew up with some that sweet leaded gas fumes, and lead paint. And there’s still extensive lead pipes serving water.
There’s an episode of the Little Rascals where the kid wants to be a street car conductor. Not much demand for that job today. Boy, do they pick up the nickels!
For a handful of years, we’d keep lead additive in the truck. Every fill up we’d add lead to the tank. GenX with just a bit of lead in the brain.
Exactly. Lead fuel additives are still sold…
Race cars tend to use them. Explains NASCAR…
Aren’t “lead additives” lead free? My dad had an old car that needed leaded, and I remember he’d put some additive every time he went to refuel. I recently found a bottle in our basement, it pretty clearly said “lead replacement” and at a glance, the ingredients didn’t seem to contain anything that sounded like lead
Some have replaced lead.
Aviation gasoline (avgas) for piston aircraft still contains lead.
Certain racing fuels (off-road, track-only) may contain lead.
Some specialty or legacy industrial uses…
Makes sense. Aviation is all about certification and reliability, racing is performance above all else, and you’ll always find some old industrial machine in the back of a shop that has somehow been running since longer than anyone remembers.
Reminds me of how despite RoHS and all that, leaded solder is still a thing for some applications like (legacy) aviation and repairs (leaded and unleaded solder apparently don’t mix well, or rather, make things corrode or something like that)
I think they call that a galvanic response. Sometimes it’s favorable. Otherwise your support is galvanizing the other. Bad news.