AMERICAN ORIGINS 1905, Automobile Gasoline Company - The automobile was already a common sight in the streets of St. Louis when, in 1905, Harry Grenner and Clem Laessig founded the Automobile Gasoline Company. The terms of the company charter are indicative: kerosene is not even mentioned there. It focuses instead on the retail sale of gasoline in keeping with the times, using equipment conceived expressly for automobiles. The fuel was dispensed from a raised cylindrical tank oriented vertically, equipped with a glass indicator for measuring the liquid level. The apparatus also included a filter and, naturally, a valve for regulating the flow of the gasoline, which arrived by way of a flexible hose whose end was inserted into the car's gas tank. The company succeeded in establishing around forty distribution stations, with the principal storage facility serving as headquarters. 1/20