Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion DON'T GIVE UP!!! TOKHEIM 39 DISCUSSION

HERE IS A NICE 39 WITHOUT ADD GLASS.. WERE THESE LESS COMMON THAN WITH GLASS?? WERE THEY OLDER OR THE SAME ERA?? ANYBODY ELSE HAVE ONE WITHOUT ADD GLASS??? DON'T GIVE UP ON FINDING PUMPS,, THIS ONE JUMPED ON THE TRAILER THIS WEEKEND.. GET-R-DONE!!!!!!!T-BONE...

T-Bone:

I've got two Tok 39's. Both don't have ad glass. I'm not sure if they are rarer or more common, but I'm sure someone else will let us know.

Later . . .

Jim

From what I understand, farmers would get the non-ad glass pumps, and local stations would get the ad glass ones. This is what I was told by a farmer back in my hometown. But from what I've found, a lot of farm pumps had ad glass too. It may be that the farmers that I have seen bought the gas station's pumps when they were going out of business, or upgrading to newer pumps.

If you ask me, the ad glass ones are more desirable and probably slightly harder to find. I'm sure there were about as many farmer's pumps as glassed pumps.

In the end though, you really got to hope Jack Sim is around and can give you the answer. If anyone knows, it's HIM!

Hey T-Bone... I had one a couple of years back, also without ad-glass. Chris Mulhall's explanation sounds very plausible to me. It certainly makes no sense for a farmer to be advertising brands. I hope someone (Hey Jack...) will shed some light on this.

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Frank

I grew up in a farming community and I have seen several gas pumps with ad glass including a 36B in Skelly that was beautiful.

Scott in KC

From what I've seen around this part of the country..... most of the pumps on farms have add glasses...... the distributor would get them a used pump as long as they bought their fuel from him.
bob

I've seen as many 39's without ad glass as I've seen with ad glass. I think any short 39 is common.
Some oil companies didn't specify ad glass for their dealers pumps.
About the only "farm" pump I've ever heard of is the gasboy. Farmers wouldn't have bought computing pumps. Why would a farmer buy a new pump that computed the price? Almost all farmers used old pumps that their fuel supplier loaned to them. When the new environmental regulations took effect farmers went to above ground tanks with small non-computing tank mounted pumps. That's when the bulk plant operators either gave the old pumps to the farmers for scrap, scrapped them themselves, or hauled them back to the bulk plant. That's why there were so many pumps at the bulk plants a few years ago. Chances are that if you find a pump on a farm it really belongs to the fuel dealer. Remember a bulk plant operator saying he had pumps on loan to farmers and wanted to know how to go about getting them back?
Bob

Everyone:

Here is a shot of the face on my latest acquisition - an American 902. It was specifically produced as a farm pump. The gallon wheels are at the top of the faceplate (instead of the center) and there aren't even any other wheels inside (other than the 'cents/gallon wheels') - no VR computing unit attached to the head either.

I have to believe that other manufactures did the same thing. As soon as Jack logs on, I'm sure he can shed more light on the subject.



Later . . .

Jim

[This message has been edited by T-way (edited 09-30-2003).]

We had a discussion about this before . there was a reason , for the add glass and not, see if we can find in in search???

T-Way,
Your pump was more likely produced for a trucking, bus,or construction co. to use in their own yard to fuel their own equipment. Those companies wouldn't have any need for a computing pump, but knowing how many gallons they were using was essential.Very few pumps were bought new by farmers.Ask every farmer you know if they ever bought a new pump. Almost all of them will say they haven't. The exceptions would be gasboy pumps, and the tank mounted pumps they use now.
Bob

Bob:

You are probably right. I never thought about a bus depot or a trucking company.

I was told by the 'picker' I bought this pump from, that it came off a farm. He said the farmer had owned it since new. It has NEVER been repainted. There was still a little 'shine' to the original red paint underneath the I.D. tag when I pulled the tag off.

I supposed it could be one of those pumps that was originally 'loaned' to the farmer by the gas distributor and never retrieved.

Oh well - I like it and plan on converting it to a regular sale/gallons/price VR unit when I re-do it. I'll probably keep the VR unit and the one faceplate from it as a curiosity. Maybe turn them into a table lamp?

Later . . .

Jim

I am anwering all these replies now because I have been gone for two weeks to Carlisle and Hershey.
I won't say never, but new pumps were usually not put on farms. Farmers were usually given pumps by the local jobber as long as they purchased their product from him.
The pumps that were put on farms were usually trade-ins from stations that were upgrading their pumps. Small town oil jobbers would go to the large cities and buy aa truck load of pumps to put on farms. This is why a pump with say, Shell logos on it could be found on a farm in an area that never had a Shell distributor.
I do have some original Milwaukee Pump Company invoices for their Model 33. This pump was developed in 1912 as a curb pump, but was still being made in the 1930s and being sold as a farm pump. The invoices were found in a jobbers warehouse in Wisconsin, and each one of them listed the farm that the pump was being order for. The pump was selling for around $35.00 in the 1930s.
There are no records of how many pumps were sold with or without ad glass.
Here is an opinion of mine. If you were a large oil company ordering pumps for all your stations in the northeast you would probably order them with ad glass cut outs. The pump company probably wouldn't charge you any additonal and the oil companies were looking for the most exposure they could get. If you were a small town station owner ordering a single pump to put out front of your garage you probably got one without ad glass panels bucause they cost a little less.

SOUNDS GOOD TO ME..... THANKS JACK..