The History of Synthetic Oil (and AMSOIL)
Conventional motor oil helped doom German soldiers in the Battle of Stalingrad during World War II, intensifying efforts to find... Research into alternatives to petroleum oils began long before Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939. But not until WWII choked off Germany’s crude-oil supplies and dramatically revealed petroleum oil’s failings on the front lines did a clear incentive to develop synthetic oil emerge and the history of synthetic oil begin to take shape. Coincidentally, as Germany’s soldiers went backward on the battlefield, its scientists drove synthetic-oil technology forward in the laboratory. More than two decades later, a fighter pilot from Duluth, Minn., would take up the mantle and bring synthetic oil to the automotive world. Here’s the story of how a technology forged in the world’s bloodiest conflict arrived in the vehicles we drive today. The failure of conventional oil Much must have weighed heavily on the minds of German and Russian soldiers as Germany’s 6th...