How much was gas in old day Philadelphia?

Answer 1

If by the old days you mean something like the 1930's and 1940's it was about 20 cents per gallon. Such a product was not available in the 1600's, 1700's and 1800's. When Colonel Edwin Drake began to drill for oil in 1859 the process of fracturing crude oil had not yet been invented. No refineries existed. The market for even basic kerosene had not yet been created and whale oil was just fine for those that needed some illumination beyond candles.

The Kerosene or coal oil lamp was a quantum leap in households and industry until Thomas Edison electrified the world and in rural America it remained the standard until after WWII when enough copper was available to Rural Electrification Associations to illuminate and power America's farms.

Gasoline had to wait until the creation of the internal combustion engine to find a use and the lighter distillates like Butane and Propane had not yet found their niche market and were simply burned off.

Gas in Colonial America was a digestive problem.