On January 7, 1913, William M. Burton received U.S. Patent No. 1,049,667 on the Manufacture of Gasolene:

Burton earned a BA from Western Reserve University, and a PhD in Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University, and started as a chemist with Standard Oil Co. in Cleveland. A year later, he transferred to Standard Oil of Indiana. Burton was working as general manager of manufacturing for Standard Oil in 1909 when he began looking for a way to improve the yield of gasoline from crude oil. He eventually developed a process that involved heating the crude oil to over 700°F, which doubled the amount of gasolene that could be obtained from crude oil, and quickly became the standard in the industry saving a billion barrels of crude oil during its first 15 years of use.

Burton was elected as director of Standard of Indiana in 1911, became vice president of the company in 1915, and was president from 1918 until he retired in 1927.