American origins

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1933 – Contometric display

Meanwhile another fundamental change was underway. It was 1933 when the Wayne Tank and Pump Company proposed a new mechanism for indicating the quantity dispensed. Instead of being connected to the sphere of the clock-face gauge, the spindle of the measuring chamber set in motion a complex system of clockworks which directed a series of […]

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1930 – Clock-face models

The nature of the visible pump obliged it to a certain monumentality: the vessel had to be placed above because the gasoline flowed by force of gravity to the vehicle, and it had to have a large capacity so as to not render the transaction too slow. The designers, in tending to the esthetic aspect […]

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1928 – Volumetric pumps

But the visible pumps were slow: once the vessel had emptied, one had to wait for it to fill up again. And they were even a bit dangerous: if the vessel broke, the service area would be instantly drenched by a cascade of flammable liquid. When at the end of the Twenties there appeared a […]

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1920 – Gasoline stations

The visible pumps were the protagonists of the Twenties, a decade in which the progress of motorization and of fuel distribution forged strongly ahead. By 1920, the gasoline pump had become part of the landscape, like street lamps and mailboxes. The number of gas stations on US territory approached fifteen thousand, though at this point […]

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1920 – Visible pumps

Eventually, the pump was assigned the single task of drawing the liquid, while the job of measurement passed to the vessel, and thus began the era of “visible pumps.” The apparatus was most impressive to behold: a sturdy housing concealed the pumping unit which, no longer linked to measurement, could be driven by an electric […]

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1910 – Lighted globes

It seemed that the thirst for gasoline was insatiable, even though more and more was being produced: in 1914 it became the principal product of petroleum refining, percentually overtaking kerosene, thanks to a new process called “cracking.” The competition among the producers was becoming stiff, and one began to see the first brand names appearing […]

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1908 – Ford Model T

The availability of these new pumps, the proliferation of the filling stations, and the general expansion of motorization had a reciprocal multiplying effect: if the growing number of automobiles encouraged the installation of new pumps, the resulting accessibility to gasoline opened the doors for the broader use and diffusion of motor vehicles. In 1908, with […]

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1906 – Tokheim Dome Oil Pump

Another step forward was taken in the following year by another pioneer in the field, John J. Tokheim, from whose garage came the Tokheim Dome Oil Pump. To the self-measuring pump he added a mechanical counter that indicated the quantity dispensed, along with a graduated glass vessel into which the liquid flowed before passing through […]

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1905 – Bowser Self-measurnig Pump

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. […]

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American origins