Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion pump faces

can anyone tell me when porcelain pump faces started appearing on pumps and why some same models can be seen with aluminum and white porcelain faces??

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This is a good one. some older clockface pumps had porcelain faces, my Rheem 34. I have seen older ones also. Porcelain started because of the ink they used on faces, faded off fast. or when cleaned the ink would smear. But if you check the dates of the production of different pumps that would have porcelain faces, so durring war time they were not aloud to use porcelain, so theres your Aluminum. hows that??

dwaine: regarding faces: why weren't the pump manufacturers allowed to use porcelain? was it the steel beneath? If I recall correctly, all aluminum was being used for P-51s, B-29s, etc for wings and fusilages. I'm curious about this because porcelain faces sure are more attractive than the aluminum in most cases, but from a correctness of restoration standpoint, well, that is a face of a different color, nespa?

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The War effort took a lot of resources and limited most manufactures. instead of makeing porcelain they made more glass for windows in Europe, airplanes, autos. thats why a lot of Texaco signs are from Canada durring that time. as far as the aluminum faces, they to were limited. even Pumps , the only ones that could get pumps were Farmers. and a lot of them might not have had faces or different parts, thats why some times we find items and question it, like its not in a book so it must be a fake, but it could have been made in a country that was not in the war or had restriction durring the war = mexico..hope this helps.

[This message has been edited by Dwaine Buck (edited 02-22-2004).]

Porcelain faces were an additional cost on most pumps, some never offered them. The Rheem 34 had Por. Why didn't the Rheem 36 cash recorder?
During the war, very few [if any] autos were being made, same with pumps.

Dwaine,
I think you're partly right, but
there weren't restrictions on glass (porcelain). The restrictions were on the steel that the porcelain was used on. Remember that during the war years oil companies used glass bottles instead of oil cans.
The use of aluminum and steel was restricted during the war. There were a few pumps built however. Not only for farmers, but for service station use too. I have a Tokheim 39 that is Marathon white porcelain that was built in early 1944. I've also seen old photo's of stations that have been fitted with new pumps during the war. It was rare, but it happened.
AS far as some of this stuff being made in other countries, I think its highly likely, especially right AFTER the war because many US companies couldn't keep up with demand.
One thing I've figured out about this hobby is NEVER say never.
Bob

this pump face business is all very fascinating, but let me ask one specific question regarding faces: did the Tok 36 B computer and A-38 national ever have white porcelain faces. If so I'm looking for both, and that prompted my question in the first place. thx.

41A,
I've never seen a 36B with por. faces, but have seen the A-38 with 2 differant WHITE [one had a black line trim close to edge] and a BLACK por. face

I say we all have reasonable answers, unless Craig has Flying A bottles and mostlikley from other then the West side, I have only seen oil from the war years in 1 and 2 gallon cans. When Sunset tried to make a comeback with Golden Eagle stations they ran into a big problem they had to sale there oil in big cans, thats one of the reasons Golden eagle quarts are so rare. these are all good answers and we are learning all the time.

Johnson,Kendall,Wake Up,Mobil,William Penn, Amalie,and many, many other companies used glass bottles or quart jars during the war years. Most look like a pickle jar with a paper label. Some had fired on painted logos.
Bob

Those companies and the Oh so hard to find Harley-Davidson Oil jar with label...anyone have one of those???????