1905 – Bowser Self-measurnig Pump

History

By 1905 the revolutionary system of Grenner and Laessig already appeared cumbersome and obsolete in respect to the latest product of the S. F. Bowser & Co.

Founded by Sylvanus F. Bowser in order to realize his invention of 1885, the company had continued to operate in the petroleum business, devising and perfecting new products.

The Bowser Self-Measuring Gasoline Storage Pump was for its time a most manageable and functional apparatus, designed to work independently of the stores and repair shops.

In a housing of wood resembling a miniature shed was a metallic tank and a lever-action piston pump, equipped with pressure vents and a hose.

To measure the amount dispensed it was enough to bear in mind that to each apportionment was always of the same quantity; by inserting stops one could limit the movement of the piston, thus dispensing predetermined fractions of the maximum capacity of the cylinder.

Bowser’s offspring is the first of a family of such devices, called self-measuring pumps.