National Benzole
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| Subsidiary of BP plc (Dormant) | |
| Industry | Oil |
| Founded | 1919 |
| Headquarters | London, England |
| Products | Petrol |
| Parent | BP |
National Benzole was a petroleum brand used in the United Kingdom from 1919 to the 1960s. In 1957 the National Benzole Co. became wholly owned by Shell-Mex and B.P. Ltd (through British Petroleum) but continued its separate trading identity. In the early 1960s National Benzole was re-branded as National and continued trading as a UK retailer of petroleum products until the early 1990s, when the brand was phased out by parent company BP.
The company was founded in February 1919 in a room next to the boiler house of the Gas Light and Coke Company in London’s Horseferry Road. In the early years of the century, benzole production had been small scale. But, because it was as good at propelling shells as motor cars, production was expanded massively during World War One. And this led to something of a post-war “benzole-lake”.
A group of men, including Samuel Henshaw, then the chairman of the Staffordshire Chemical Company, reckoned there was money to be made from these surplus-to-requirements stocks. Henshaw became the first chairman of the National Benzole Company. Although the idea of using benzole to power automobiles was not new, cars fueled on neat benzole needed altered carburetter settings which was inconvenient for owners who had previously used petrol and the effectiveness of neat benzole as a paint stripper raised concern about the possible effect on carburettor floats made of varnished cork - a common feature in US vehicles which at the time were being imported in greater numbers. There was also concern about the variable quality and specification of the benzole. It was in the need to address these concerns, especially regarding consistency of fuel quality, that Henshaw and his colleagues recognized their commercial opportunity.
A distribution network was established consisting of a few (initially) storage depots round the country, supplied by a small fleet of used lorries with solid tyres (tires), acquired from the War Disposals Board. These transported the fuel in war-surplus drums and cans of 2, 4 or 50 gallons.
The young company received a boost in 1920 with the award of the RAC Dewar Trophy to a Rolls-Royce 40/50 hp that successfully completed a 10,000 mile reliability trial fueled exclusively by National Benzole. Problems arose in the same year from a coal strike which restricted benzole availability, and increased demand in the ensuing years led to frequent shortages of coal shale from which the benzole was made. At the same time, some reckoned neat benzole was a little strong for the average engine and started to mix it with petrol. This led in 1922 to the replacement of benzole fuel with a "fifty-fifty mixture" of benzole and petroleum which addressed the supply issue and could be seen as an early example of customer responsiveness. Neat benzole continued to be marketed as an effective anti-knocking performance enhancing additive.
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Wikipedia