Many decades ago, a common attraction at a county fair would be a salesman who would drive up in a Model T Ford or Hupmobile or the like which would be running very roughly and knocking. The salesman, once a crowd had gathered, would sprinkle a few drops of a chemical on his necktie and then wave the necktie in front of the carburetor. The car engine would then immediately subside to a gentle but enthusiastic purr once fumes from the necktie were sucked in. The spectators would then shove dollar bills towards the salesman for a bottle of this miracle additive to put into the gas tanks of their own vehicles.
I did not use the term "huckster" or "charlatan" or any other derogatory term for the salesman, as his product actually worked to boost the octane of the gasoline and to improve engine performance. Unfortunately for the salesmen, the miracle ingredient was tetraethyl lead, and many of the salesmen ultimately discovered that wandering around with lead fumes wafting from a garment around one's neck is not healthy. However, even the surviving salesmen soon went out of business once the major oil companies added tetraethyl lead to the gasoline at the refinery so that everyone, in true democratic equality, could be exposed to lead fumes.
Tetraethyl lead was phased out by law starting in the late 1970s, which proved to be an inconvenience to those owning cars from the 1950s with high-compression engines which needed high-octane gasoline.
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