Is it just a wild coincident from how this picture was taken, or are those island lights coming out of the top of those globes?

"Trick" photography even back in the day! Looking closely at the photo, it appears that the top of globe has begun it downward turn before the pole. I think it is just the angle from which the photo was taken and the poles stand behind the pump.

Look at the shadow on the ground to the left of left pump. The pole is coming out of the globe. No trick photography there.

Good point, however the angles are wrong in my opinion. Perhaps some of the globe experts will weigh in on this. If it comes out of the globe it would need to have a hole in it and the lights inside the globe would have to be offset. The pump itself would have to have some mounting hardware to support the light pole. Until we know more, we will have agree to disagree.

If those are real that is awesome.

The shadow proves they come out of the globe. If they were behind there would be an offset in the shadow. Plus if they were behind, what would that do to the service on the other side of the island?
It's jsut seems weird that there doesn't appear to be any harware up were the post passes into the globe.
I bet if I had one of Jacks books it I wouldn't have to ask.

I agree that the light poles come out of the globe.

It wouldn't be difficult to do. Design brackets to attach the pipe (2.5") to the top of the pump frame below the top sheet metal. Make a 2.5" hole in the metal globe body. Then slide the globe down the pole and place harp and light shade on top of pipe. You would have enough room inside the globe body to place a 25 watt light blub on either side of the pipe to light up the globe as well.

Those poles did indeed come out of the top of the gas pumps & through the globes body,and not the ground behind it.
I've only seen one other set up like this & the globes did not light up and were stagnant.
I suppose the ones in your photo might have lit up,with a custom wired bulb through the pole inside.

Guess we will never know. But I do not believe they come out of the globe. Doesn't look like it to me.

Larry

It appears it is the consensus that I am wrong, wouldn't be the first/last time I am sure. Would love to see a photo from the other side or a globe body made for that application. Also very interesting is the symbol on the front of the station the Sunoco sign. It appears to be a doctors cadeusus. What is up with that? Was Sunoco advertised as good medicine???

...they do come out of the globe...Revere made them...

...Mercury-Made...

The caduceus is often associated with the god Mercury,and Sunoco marketed its motor oil as "Mercury-Made" in the 1940s,due to the use of mercury in its process at that time.
Although the association with Mercury seems to have disappeared by the 1950s,some stations still had the caduceus.

Just hang around you guys long enough and some of the knowledge will rub off. Thanks!

If they do run thru the globe you don't need a light in the globe you have one above it.

They say you should learn something new everyday, so I guess I am done, and can just waste the rest of today!

This is actually the very kind of discussion I enjoy.I had never seen that type of pump light, nor heard the "mercury processed" by Sunoco. Some of you guys have such a wealth of info, and I appreciate you taking time to share it.

Thanks, Kody

I have a lot of catalogs from lighting companies including Revere, and I have never seen this before.

Jack Sim

Stumbled across another pic with the same/similar set up.

...Jack, what are the odds that the one Revere catalog I have, is one that you don't?

Revere Lighting Catalog "H" from 1941:



...page 63, in the lower right corner...note the two light bulbs within the globe:

now that is a good picture of one some body show us one in their collection.

Mark,
You got me there, yes I do not have that catalog.

Good work,

Jack

I love old photos , all that history in one shot.
Sharing photos initiates these kind of discussions.
Thanks for your efforts.

...Jack, I would have thought for sure you did - you've got everything!

...a couple of weeks ago, I bought a oil jobber catalog, that was actually many manufacturer catalogs bound together with brass brads - the Revere catalog was one of the catalogs...I unbound them, for ease of reading, but kept the cover and left them in the same order as they were bound...

...I found it at the flea market, and asked the guy 'how much?'...he said '$5 - there's a couple more over there'...I of course asked where they were, and he pointed at two old phone books...

...I paid him the $5 and left the phone books...

Great information Mark!! Thanks for helping to figure it out.

Now we need a picture of a brand other than Sunoco. Or were they possibly the only brand that ordered these.

Great detective work Mark, thanks for sharing. Interesting that Revere were offering these for 15" as well as 16 1/2" sized bodies. Did Sunoco use 16 1/2" globes? Cheers, Don.

SC62
You are assuming too much. Not all pumps and pump accessories were purchased by the oil company. These catalogs were available to anyone in the service station business. Mom & Pop may have seen them in a catalog and purchased them.

Jack Sim

I gotcha!! I thought, like I believe most franchises are today, where corporate controls this sort of thing in order to control brand recognition.
Thanks Jack!!

Recently I came into conversation with a guy in central Mi. whose dad owned a Sunoco station. He has some very minty stuff. One thing he had was this apparently NOS globe. Unfortunately he won't sell it cuz he wants to put in on top of the visible pump that he says he also has. Even though I showed him that this globe dates long after the visible era. (globe CD places this globe 1946-1950)
Anyway. the reason I am posting this into this old thread is this. Notice how the globe has what looks like tape on top, apparently from the factory in that it is the same color as the frame. Well if you look close, you can see where this tape is covering a hole. Just the kind of hole that would make the light poles in this original posting possible.
Just thought it was very interesting.
Too bad he won't sell. This globe looks flawless. I wrote him to find out what the little writing at the bottom of the lense says. He also tells me there is another brand new frame in the box. I'm trying to convince him to sell me that. We'll see.

When this globe body popped up on my feebay newly listed alerts I was thinking that there was an interesting discussion on here a while back about the globe with the light pole going through it. Well, I can't remember what happened yesterday most of the time so I searched and found this thread and realized that I just had to gather up the parts and build one of those pumps! It happened to be a BIN so I snatched up the body and thought I'd do the necessary research later. Seems like my most involved (and expensive) projects always start with one part I pick up and then have to have everything else that goes with it. Now I need the Revere pole light and a M&S 70 pump and some Blue Sunoco lenses! The body looks like the one SteveC posted that had the taped up hole, the tape and the cardboard cover piece on this one looks like it's been there for years so who knows if it was ever used with the pole? Steve, did you actually have those pictures or were they just internet images? If I do a pump, I'd like to have a real picture to show it in use.

Nice find. Interesting to note that both (yours & the one found by Steve) are low profile bodies.

Gary,
I just pulled them from the web. But I have them saved if you want me to send them to you.

I too dream of finding the parts, short of the pump, to assemble one of these some day. If I cannot find the actual parts, I hope to build my own using some kind of revere harp and blue shade.

Here is a picture of the frame I did ultimately purchase from the upper Michigan man I spoke of. No cardboard on this one, and it came NOS in the box when I bought it.

NOS in the box or Found in the box?

Well going with NOS meaning "New Old Stock" definition, it was found in the box having never been in service.
You can see that the snap rings are like new. And there is not a spot of rust or hardly even a scratch.
Also, you can see, although hard to photograph, where the original paint did not fully cover down in parts of the grooves on the outer surface. If this had been a repaint, I'm sure the any decent painter trying to repaint the piece, would have been more caring to paint it perfectly.
If that's not NOS, then what is?
Also, FWIW, I have the box.

Great stuff Steve. It all started with a curious/interesting picture and look where we are now.

Thanks Steve, I'd like to have a copy of those pictures if you'd email them to me (addy in my profile). If they aren't any better resolution than the ones posted don't bother but usually you lose some resolution when downsizing to fit in a post. I would also like to have a copy of that page that Mark posted from the Revere catalog or, even better, my own catalog. If you're reading this Mark and would part with a copy I'd love to have it. I'll be looking close at any Revere books I see from now on.

After reading the description of the kit in that catalog I'm wondering if it actually came with a body that had been modified with the hole or if putting the hole in a canteen body was up to the installer with the kit only coming with the pole light and mounting hardware with the light sockets for the globe. Another thing I noticed about my body as well as Steve's is the single hole that is drilled in the side of the base. I don't think this hole is in every low profile 15" body is it? The catalog info on the kit says that the adapter is installed with "hook bolts and plate" to the pump so maybe that hole is where a screw was used to secure the body to the adapter plate? Other than that adapter plate that we can't really see in the catalog, everything else is pretty clear as to what was used including a " "2" standard, 42" long" pipe. Why would they bother to mention that the pole was standard 2" pipe if the globe with a hole in it came with the kit? I'm betting that the customer punched the hole in a globe body he supplied to finish the installation. The small hole in the base on mine has been drilled with a pretty dull bit so I doubt it was drilled by Revere. They may have even supplied a hole punch in the kit for the installer. The fact that Steve's was in an original box doesn't mean that it wasn't punched for use on a pole light by a station owner and then never used. But, another interesting thing is that both of these bodies had the hole covered with tape and then were painted Sunoco yellow. Mine has been painted over later with a brush but the original yellow paint is showing under that on the tape and cardboard over the hole. Maybe they were modified by Revere and painted for the jobber in the company color of their choice....who knows?....GB

Gary,
To make things even stranger, mine apparently didn't come from Revere. Here are pictures of the box.

Also, the small hole in mine was surely put in after paint.
And the tape was surely put on after paint as the paint runs cleanly under the tape. And I really dont believe the tape is painted.

The tape on mine was also put on top of the original body paint but it is exactly the same color as the original layer of yellow on the tape. I don't know if they would have had colored tape back then, guess they could have. At any rate it looks like the tape wouldn't have been put on there when it was new if it was going to be used for the pole light. Maybe Revere got the punched and painted bodies from Phil. Elect. and included them in the kit. Note that it doesn't say "Sunoco" yellow.....I don't know who all the manufacturers of metal bodies were either. Does anyone know if Phila. Elect. made bodies?