Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Ripple body globes

When were these used from what dates and what companies used them? Seems they were mainly in the midwest from what I have seen. The price seems to have really gone up, and what colors were involved?
Thanks

Craig,
I have been lucky to have acquired over the years the following colors in origional ripple bodies. White,Yellow, Clear, Orange,Red and Blue.
This summer I picked an awesome green one up for a good friend in Tennessee and brought it back to Oklahoma.

Maurice

You would have thought that after 178 people viewed this topic, someone would have know the answer to the simple question of where these came from. Seems the only answers I get from questions is from people on the west coast. Is there something that I am missing on this site?

Craig you could ask Scott Benjamin or Lonnie Hop they will know & help ya out

I am in the Midwest in Oklahoma, I currently and useing three orange a a blue ripple that come on some of my Bell oil globes from Oklahoma.A white,2 yellow and 2 red on my Kanotex from Kansas, The Clear origionaly came with Crystal Flash.
Bell used the orange ripple from 1935-1950, the blue ripple 1935-1941.
The Kanotex red ripple 1930-1952,the yellow ripple1930-1952and the white ripple on the Kanotex Aviation from 1930-1039.
Hope this helps
Maurice

J.D. Streett's Zephyr Gas used red ripple bodies from 1939 - 1954 for round regular and ethyl globes. They marketed in the Midwest with a HQ in St. Louis, Mo.

http://www.gaspumps.info/gallery/v/globes/JDStreet/zephyrripple.jpg.html

While you are on that page, type in "ripple" in the Search the Gallery search box and click your keyboard Enter key. Then click the "Show All" button on the search results page. You'll see 20 ripple globes from various brands.

To add to what has already been posted the Gill Glass Co of Philadelphia, PA made the ripple body globes. There was also a brown color (with root beer lenses) in addition to the colors previuosly listed. Among many of the colors there were various degrees of color intensity resulting many different shades. As stated it appears that most of the companies to use ripple bodies were located in the midwest. Hudson oil of Kansas City, Ben Franklin Refining of Ardmore, OK, Sovereign Services located in many midwestern states, Dixie Distributors of Ann Arbor, MI, Old Dutch Refining of Muskegon, MI, J D Street (Zephyr) of Maryland Heights, MO,and Bay Petroleum of Denver, CO were others that used ripple bodies. Ripple bodies were also used for other than gasoline advertising purposes with green bodies found many times with ice cream lenses. As to why these bodies were mainly used in the the midwest who knows? These bodies were used by companies from coast to coast but the midwest seems to be the primary user. On possible answer could be the sheer number of petroleum companies in business in that part of the country during the period that the bodies were in production. Hope this sheds some light on your question.

I'm just guessing here, Craig, but I suspect that 177 of the folks that viewed your question DIDN'T KNOW THE ANSWER! You got an answer about the colors.....seems to me the question about dates and compaines is anything but simple, and something 95% of Oldgassers don't know....I certainly don't. And I think the "something you're missing on this site" is that participation is voluntary, and that chastising folks for not answering your questions isn't the best way to get information. But that's just my opinion.

Richard

Craig:

According to my conversations with Lonnie Hop and Scott Benjamin, they've never seen a Green Ripple with gasoline lenses on it.
Every Green Ripple they have ever found had Ice Cream lenses in it.

I can't say for certain that some obscure company didn't put their lenses in a Green Ripple - but the chances are slim.

Later . . .

Jim

Keep in mind once the station got the globes they would crazy stuff. They could have put capco lenses on glass... i seen a real nice red and gold crown where the station scraped the gold off. Most likely the red crown got broke and the station owner had the red and gold laying around and it was cheaper to have the attendant just scrap off the gold and put it on the pump so it looked like a red only.

I have been told by older collectors from the Michigan area that "Michigan Maid" oil company used the green ripples as did "Harmony" globes also from Michigan.

Roger is correct on the green ripples. Michigan Maid used them (two known), Harmony Oil out Michigan used them (three known), and there were several that turned up in Eastern Iowa about 20 years ago that were presumed to be from American Oil out of Davenport, Iowa. The vast majority of green ripples were from advertising globes with most of them being Ice Cream globes.

There was an older collector in Ohio years ago that had 4 green ripples and each of them had been found with Ice Cream lenses. Ripples that were used with advertising lenses (beer companies used a lot of them, especially in the Baltimore area for some reason) always have screw bases on them. This was beacause they were hung upside down over doorways as an entrance light/adverisiing piece. The reason for the screw base is obvious, a globe hanging by just a glass base would over a period of time crack and eventually fall off due to the weight of the globe and vibration. I hope these few random thoughts help!

Lonnie Hop

It is nice to see that with my 2nd post on this I did get some very good answers. Thanks to all who helped and of course the ones like me that do not know much at all. I have been doing this for about 25 years now, and It just seemed that the eastern side of the country doesn't appear to go out of the way to answer questions for fellow collectors on the west coast . Have heard this for quite awhile but kept this to myself up till that post. Did not mean to chastize anyone, but it certainly brought out the answers from some very knowledgable people. Have not had the chance to get answers like this before.

Craig.....your 2nd posting certainly was effective, and the information gathered will be useful reference material for all on Oldgas. Sorry I took offense when none was intended. You'd think at my age I would have already learned to keep my mouth shut.

Richard

Thanks again and I certainly respect all.