In this historical review the NBS work on hydrocarbons is discussed in terms of the three major classes of natural hydrocarbonaceous fuels: natural gas, petroleum, and coal. The work done on the measurement of properties of the pure components has included measurement of the values of the properties themselves and development of practical and accurate measurement procedures and instruments. In addition, combustion energies, densities, viscosities, vapor pressures, refractive indices, elemental compositions and other parameters have been determined for complex fuel mixtures and correlated to find methods of estimating properties. Extensive standard reference data tables have been compiled and a number of standard reference materials have been developed.