No. 1, 2010

The Nobel dynasty played an enormous role in the development of the oil industry both in Russia and across the world. Its members were innovators in many fields; along with much else, it was due to them that oil was first shipped in bulk and the world's first mass production of diesel engines began at the Nobel Works in St. Petersburg. With the support of the Imperial Russian Automobile Society, the creation of Russia's first network of gasoline filling stations was among the Nobel Brothers Partnership's most important business initiatives.

Automotive hobby, gasoline lobby

When the Russian Empire's first automobile (belonging to Vasily Navrotsky, editor of the newspaper The Odessa Leaflet) appeared in Odessa in 1891, gasoline in Russia was used exclusively as a cleaning agent and solvent. It was for these purposes that one could buy it at drugstores and kerosene vendors. Motoring was, however, gaining in popularity throughout the Empire, the demand for fuel was growing, and the gasoline business began to attract the interest of oil industrialists. In addition, many of them were becoming automobile aficionados themselves. Among these were the Nobel brothers, Russia's oil kings.

The Nobels owned a huge personal fleet of autos. Gustav Nobel, for example, a member of Moscow's First Russian Automobile Club, owned a personal Berliet with a torpedo racing body, even though the company's local representation had a luxurious corporate Lorelei limousine. In general, the company had a huge number of corporate autos of different makes and models at their disposal in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Baku, while the company's trading house used Gaggenau and Commercial Cars trucks (along with traditional horse-drawn carts) to transport their petroleum products.

Ludvig, Robert, and Emanuel Nobel were members of the Imperial Russian Automobile Society (IRAS), founded in 1903. Ludvig was elected treasurer of the IRAS and served on its Tourism Commission and Technical Commission. Thanks to Ludvig's business acumen, he managed to secure a permanent market for Nobel Bros. petroleum products through the Automobile Society, initially by delivering fuel and oil to the IRAS garage and to the homes of its members.

Setting up shop in 1911, the IRAS Technical Commission pushed for consideration its draft of compulsory regulations for the taxi business at a number of its meetings, along with draft "rules for garages and the storage of gasoline." Representatives of the Automobile Society were invited to join a special commission of the St. Petersburg Municipal Council, formed "in order to review the current compulsory regulations concerning the construction of safe garages and the storage of gasoline at them." The commission, which included IRAS members Pavel Belyaev (one of the pioneers of Russian automobile, motorcycle, and motorboat sport) and Nikolay Kuznetsov (a prominent building engineer), had by 1913 drawn up rules for the construction of garages and the safe storage of fuel. The draft was approved by the Council of Congresses of Industry and Trade Representatives, and was later adopted by the St. Petersburg Municipal Council.

The Nobels, who had skillfully lobbied for their own interests and limited trade maneuvers for many small businessmen, selling gasoline and kerosene through small shops and drugstores, obviously played an active role in promoting the new rules via the IRAS. It must be said that restrictions on sales of liquid fuels, imposed out of concerns over safety, were already in place in certain parts of the Russian Empire. The Nobel Brothers Partnership stood to gain directly from this state of affairs.

In its "Chronicle" section, the July 11, 1902 issue of Avtomobil magazine noted that "Kiev motorists now find themselves in a critical situation. Not so long ago, due to several gasoline explosions during fires in the city, drugstores were prohibited from dealing freely in gasoline. The upshot of this is that gasoline can now be purchased either in amounts of no fewer than 5 poods [82 kg] at Nobel warehouses, or like pharmaceuticals at drugstores."

Buying drugstore gasoline in glass bottles, however, was not only expensive, it was extremely inconvenient for motorists. The bottles broke easily, and pieces of cork would get into gas tanks if the cars' owners did not pour the fuel through funnels with sieves or rags. Occasionally, due to the druggist's error, a driver in a hurry risked pouring spirits of ammonia or some other fluid entirely detrimental to his automobile into the gas tank if he did not take the time to check the bottle's contents first.

Gasoline and motor oil could be bought only in large cities, where the prices of such vital commodities could be elevated substantially. On holidays, it was extremely difficult to find any fuel at all.

In 1911, the first year of its existence, the IRAS Tourism Commission signed a contract with the Nobel Brothers Oil Production Partnership that resolved the "burning issue of providing motorists with fuel and lubricants." Under the terms of the contract, the company was to supply gasoline from its own warehouses to members of the IRAS and the clubs affiliated with it at prices that had been fixed earlier. In those places where the company had no warehouses, fuel was dispensed through its agents, the largest of which was the Meteor Trading House.

The Commission laid in stores of gasoline and motor oil at the expense of the participants of auto races. A list of the points where they were located was issued well before each competition. The rules of competition, adopted by all Russian auto clubs in accordance with the 1911 Union Agreement with the IRAS, stated: "The use of gasoline other than that laid in by the Commission is prohibited, as is the adulteration of it."

Kings of the Russian gas stations

All of the dispensing points for Nobel gasoline and motor oil were designated "gasoline stations," in the Western manner. The initial number of these was limited to Russia's largest cities, predominantly to the southwest of St. Petersburg and Moscow. Depots of petroleum products were located "to the west of the line marked on the map from St. Petersburg, following the railroad to Rybinsk, along the Volga River to Tsaritsyn (new Volgograd), and then down the River Don to Rostov-on-Don." Rybinsk, Tsaritsyn, and Rostov-on-Don were all major centers for the transhipping of the company's petroleum products, playing a key role in the Nobels' retail trade in kerosene and fuel oil. Under the terms of the agreement, the network of these stations was expanded considerably throughout 1912, and the IRAS even printed a brochure with a detailed list of filling stations for the convenience of motorists. The fact is that in all of Russia, there were 434 gasoline stations serving motorists by 1913.

According to the agreement it had signed, the Nobel company was required to keep adequate stores of gasoline and two grades of motor oil "for the needs of members of the automobile societies."

To determine the prices for gasoline and oil, the stations were divided into three categories. The first category comprised company warehouses in such large cities as St. Petersburg, Moscow, Riga, Vilnius, Warsaw, Kiev, Odessa, Kharkov, and Rostov-on-Don. The second category included all of the other stations at Nobel warehouses, and the third category was composed of gasoline filling stations in such "cities and localities" where the company had no storage facilities of its own but where it entrusted the sale of gasoline to one of the local merchants upon request of the IRAS or an affiliated auto club. The lower the category, the higher the price of fuel and motor oil was set. Prices for gasoline and lubricants were determined in advance every six months, from April to September, inclusive (the so-called summer season), and from October to March (the winter season).

The Nobel company devoted special attention to the problems of logistics. To avoid possible shortages in its stockpiles of petroleum products, an agreement was reached with the Russian auto clubs whereby they would give a month's notice of any upcoming races or ordinary group auto tours, complete with the number of automobiles, the route they would follow, and the time of their departure.

The Nobels kept careful watch over the quality of fuel and lubricants at their gas stations. To ensure their quality, the company's chemical laboratory in St. Petersburg performed tests of gasoline and motor oil submitted by members of the auto clubs free of charge. To avoid any sleight-of-hand with company fuel, gasoline at Third Category stations (i.e., those belonging to the company's authorized agents) was stored only in strong one-pood (16.4 kg) iron drums, secured with the company seal, with the buyer paying extra for the container itself.

At many gas stations of the First and Second categories, gasoline was dispensed from above-ground cisterns and mechanical pumps with underground reservoirs. In any case, customers could buy gasoline in a sealed one-pood container at all stations, without exception. Undamaged drums were redeemed at their prime cost, or at half-price if they were returned by agents. Stores of lubricants ("M&T Automobile Oil"), i.e., transmission fluid, motor oil, and "Solidol gearbox grease," were kept at stations in five-poods' canisters that were not redeemable. At the stations, one could also buy a special brochure issued by the Nobel Brothers Partnership and devoted to the lubrication of automobiles.

At stops in the populated localities near gas stations, IRAS members could at additional cost order fuel and motor oil by telephone for delivery to a specified address, or send their order in by post or telegraph in advance. Petroleum products were dispensed from warehouses on weekdays from sunup to sundown; on weekends and holidays, gasoline and motor oil could be made available and delivered only if one placed an order in advance, no later than one day before the product was to be sold. On the roads near cities and other settled areas that had Nobel gasoline filling stations, the company put their billboards up on decorated wooden posts, both in Russian and in foreign languages.

When driving through towns that had no automobile garages, members of the auto societies had the right to leave their vehicles at Nobel warehouses for one night free of charge. Station managers were to keep sufficiently informed so as to be able tell passing motorists about the road and weather conditions up to the next station along their route when the need arose, and to provide customers with other useful information.

At the time of the Imperial Prize Race from St. Petersburg to Sebastopol in September 1911, the first special coupon books were prepared for drivers entered in the competition and sold to the contenders before the start of the race. Once on the road, gasoline was purchased with coupons torn from the books, making payment considerably easier. Fifty-four cars took part in the race, consuming almost 20.5 tons of gasoline and earning some 6500 rubles for the Nobel Bros. Co.

The 1911 race was so impressive, it immediately spawned three new auto clubs: the South Russia, Yekaterinoslav, and Odessa ones, which affiliated themselves with the Imperial Russian Automobile Society that same year.

Gasoline began to take an increasingly important place in the Nobel brothers' business. Along with private motorists, the company also strove to serve government agencies, including the War Department of the Russian Empire, which was interested in massive deliveries of quality fuel and lubricants and quickly began to avail itself of the company's services. In 1917, the Nobels' oil empire ceased to exist, although the company's ideas in regard to both the oil business and the gasoline filling station business were successfully put to use in the coming years, to Russia's great benefit.