In 1910, a Pittsburgh motor car owner walked into chemist Dr. Walter Snelling's office, complaining that the gallon of gasoline he had purchased was half a gallon by the time he got home.  Consumers were being cheated, he said, because the gasoline was evaporating at a rapid and expensive rate, and he asked Dr. Snelling to investigate.  Dr. Snelling took up the challenge.  Using coils from an old hot-water heater and other miscellaneous pieces of laboratory equipment, he built a still that could separate the gasoline into its liquid and gaseous components and discovered that the evaporating gases were propane, butane, and other hydrocarbons.

People soon discovered the value of this wonderful new fuel. By 1912, the first propane gas stove was cooking food in the home. The first propane-powered vehicle ran in 1913, and, by 1915, propane was being used in torches to cut through metal.  By 1920, propane was marketed for flame cutting and cooking applications. In 1927, total sales of propane in the United States exceeded 1 million gallons!

By the 1930s, the Compressed Gas Association (CGA) established and proposed a set of recommendations to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). In 1932, the first pamphlet of standards (No. 58) was adopted for publication. Known as the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Code, or NPFA 58, this standard is still in use today, having been adopted by most states as the basis for their regulations.  After World War II, as the nation’s population grew and its economy expanded, annual sales of propane gas increased to more than 15 billion gallons.