1918 – Double-vessel pumps

History

In France the automobile was already rather widespread, particularly in the large cities.

As soon as the war ended, a certain number of industries intuited the potential of the new market and gave themselves over to the construction of the first European roadside filling stations, in part copying American examples, in part proposing original solutions.

One genuine innovation was applied to the visible pumps, insofar as the mono-vessel pump gave way to a completely new type with two vessels, usually five litres each, substituting the large single container.

Rather than a graduated numerical index, it used a simple spillway at the summit of the vessels which allowed them to operate in tandem.

The attendant began to fill the first, closing it when the level arrived at the spillway, at which point he would then activate a small lever, obtaining a twofold result: the five liters contained in the full vessel took the route of the hose and, recommencing to pump, fresh fuel flowed into the second vessel.

Once the latter was refilled, the switch was flipped back, and the process began again.

While one tank was being filled, the other emptied itself into the vehicle, and so on in increments of five liters.

If the method was conceptually elegant, the dispensing was not very fast.

A few years later the process was streamlined by the addition of floating ball-cocks which rendered the inversion of the vessels automatic.

The manual models, considered more durable, nevertheless remained in production.

One saw mono-vessel columnar pumps “all’americana” not only in France but in other parts of Europe as well.

But it was the double-vessel type that came to characterize in large part the streets of the old continent.