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In the early 1920s, Indian adopted a redesigned “Havoline” trademark and virtually identical “Indian Gas” logo, both of which prominently featured the red-white-and-blue ball that had first been incorporated into the “Havoline” logo in 1922. A new theme, “Havoline – the power oil,” appeared on two-sided enamel curb signs adjacent to service stations and in all of the company’s advertising. As an ad showed an auto pushing up a mountainous incline, the copy stressed that Havoline Motor Oil provided the power “for a long pull and a strong pull.” The company advertised extensively on billboards and in newspapers and farm publications. Signaling the company’s interest in many overseas markets, one ad in an Illinois publication stated: “Not only in Illinois, but all over the United States and in 29 foreign countries, people who demand the maximum power from their motors insist on Havoline—the power oil.”
Despite its advertising success, Indian could not pull itself out of its financial difficulties. As a result, Indian brought in a new President, Col. James H. Graham, who decided to gamble the company’s future on developing a new lubricant refining process. He hired Dr. Francis X. Govers, one of the country’s foremost petroleum engineers, and commissioned him to produce an oil as efficient in cold weather as in hot weather. To meet Indian’s formidable challenge, Govers heeded Col. Graham’s maxim: “Do things different and generally you’ll do it right.” After much research experimentation, Govers developed a solvent process using benzene and acetone that removed harmful wax and carbon residues from distilled motor oils and improved cold-weather starting capabilities. To capitalize on his revolutionary breakthrough, Indian built a new plant equipped with huge presses that had previously been used to get molasses out of sugar cane and were now adapted to produce large quantities of wax-free oil.
Indian debuted its new Havoline® WaXfree motor oil in August 1929, along with an economy Blended Havoline. Initially, lubricant sales rose, but the market gains were canceled out by the high cost of developing the new refining process. This deficit, combined with the economic effects of the Great Depression, soon drove the company toward bankruptcy.
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