Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion ALEMITE 5-gal can with spout & handle ?

Just picked this up. I've heard of Alemite & figured it would be easy to reference via Ebay & collector sites... no dice

Measures 17" tall to the top of the spout, 11.25" diameter. Top is slightly dented as shown in photo.

Anyone know about this type of can? What time period, scarcity, value? Offers accepted, we are in Lancaster, PA.

I can't tell you the history of Alemite but you might enjoy this photo to go with your can. I do know that this picture was taken in Lompoc California in the late 30's or early 40's and that obviously one of the racers was an Alemite fan. Apparently Alemite was used on the West Coast. Hopefully some of the other gas geeks can tell you about the company.

Curt, you amaze me!!!! I dont have any info on Alemite, though I did pick up two Alemite cans from my Father-in-law in New Mexico. If that strengthens the western region thing, but both cans have Chicago, Illinois on them.
BTW, you can looks like my Phillips can, which was filled with gear oil. Check my post from last weeks B.O.T.W.

[This message has been edited by Thunder (edited 06-19-2005).]

When it comes to Alemite all I have is grease cans, but I have several versions of the 5 gallon can shown including Richfield, Shell and Union 76. I've paid anywhere from five to fifteen dollars and a lot of "you can have that if you want it" freebies. Don't seem to be a lot of five gallon can collectors. They take up a lot of space. I have a stack that's five or six high and have also hung some from hooks on the rafters of my "museum" in the barn.

Where's the Alemite expert out there?

Curt I think that car in the top of your pic is late 40,s.

Iam thinking it is not 45 or earlier by the amount of trim on it, verey few bells-n-whistles during the war years...

I'm not a car expert DoDo so you could be right. I'm basing my dates on when the races were run from the information I have. Beside limiting the trim used on cars, rationing of gas, oil and tires made it hard to justify a leisure sport like auto racing in the mid to late 40's.

My car bible that I use for reference shows a 1941 0r 42 Chevrolet Special that looks a lot like that car. Any car experts or Alemite experts out there?

Alemite Corp - Chicago, IL began marketing motor oil and greases in the 1910s. They became a part of Stewart-Warner Corp about 1970 and discontinued lubricants marketing shortly thereafter. In the tool kits for the Model A Fords, I think they containted a Alemite grease gun but I'm not sure. This is the only Almite piece I have. Richard

I did a little more research, and according to company history pages Alemite was born in 1919 and acquired by Stewart-Warner in 1924, operating as a "sister company" until the mid-1990's when the companies were separated in a series of buy-outs.

There's a used booksller who has an Alemite 1939 garage manual with lubrication tables for various automobiles. See http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=73268909

My guess is that the can is from 1935-45 at this point.

I have an old Alemite metal box,18x12x4 inches deep that is seperated into compartments that hold various sizes of grease fittings and grease cups,cup lids,etc. The box is blue and the ALEMITE lettering is in yellow.

I'm not sure about now,but back in the 80's Alemite had lube systems that were installed in garages.I remember having to get certified to install the systems.I think I installed a few in the 90's.