How a Carless company helped launch a car company

How a Carless company helped launch a car company
ETS' parent company—Halterman Carless, Inc—was founded in 1859 by Eugene Carless. Building a chemical plant in East London, Eugene was an early pioneer of refining petroleum into flammable distillates like paraffin oil, benzoline, and carburine.

Around the same time, Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz were working on developing the first self-powered automobiles with internal combustion engines. It didn't take long for Daimler to realize that Eugene Carless' company - then called simply Carless - could produce the kind of fuel his fledgling vehicles needed. In 1893 an alliance was formed, and Carless started supplying Daimler with fuel for his new invention the 'car.' Thus, in what has to be one of the most ironic naming partnerships in history, a Carless company helped launch a car company. 

Further cementing Haltermann Carless' legacy in automotive history, Eugene Carless called his petroleum-based automotive fuel 'petrol' and the rest, as they say, is history.