A history of books, etc.:
Back in the early 1980s Ed Love published some basically newsletters about the hobby. They featured stories about pumps, etc. He had a number of titles, some of them were "Check The Oil."
Also, in the 1980s, Scott Benjamin published what I believe was the first book about collecting petroleum items. Scott and I have often talked about our books and he told me his old 1980s book has sold over 33,000 copies and he still receives a few dollars royalties every time a few sell.
Somewhere in the 1980 Bob Lee published a few books about gas pumps. Black & white pictures of pumps.
Ed Love continued his publications into the 1980s. Since I really don't know the story, something went on about Ed Love, "Check the Oil" magazine and Iowa Gas. From this we now have the "CTO" swap meet in Columbus, Ohio, and Iowa Gas in DesMoines, Iowa. At this time Ed Love was publishing a periodical called the "Tigar Rag."
Tim Dye, took over the writing and publishing of "Tiger Rag." He made it a monthly publication with color. Unfortunately, he was only able to published 24 monthly issues, I believe he just didn't have enough followers, even while his publication was excellent. It was a little slanted more to about oil companies and cans, but it was interesting.
In the late 1980, the "Check the Oil" club and magazine was taken over by Jerry Keyser of Columbus, Ohio. Somewhere in the late 1990's I started writing gas pump articles for CTO.
Interjecting a piece of Petro history, Jerry Keyser is credited with having invented the word "petrolinia."
In 1996 I published my first book. It was about air meters and I only had 200 copies printed, but it was a start. It only identified 75 air meters.
After 2000 Scott Benjamin and Wayne Henderson started creating books. Scott's specialty was globes and Wayne's specialty was, well just being very good at a lot of things, oil company histories, globes you name it. When you meet him you will find out how knowledgeable he is about anything petro. They combined to form a monthly publication called "PCM." At this time, Scott Benjamin started writing articles about gas pumps. I am not a globe person, but they have combined to write I believe three books about globes and even offering them on a CD.
In 2002 I came out with my first "Gas Pump Identification" book. Looking back it was not a very good book, but it was a start. It did sell 10,000 copies.
A few years later I decided to write the 2nd Edition of the Gas Pump book. While it was in being printed I also wrote the 2nd Edition of the Air Meter Identification book. This time I identified 450 air meters. The 2nd gas pump book also sold about 10,000 copies.
Since I do not have copies of these books so I don't know the dates they were printed I will just state what I remember.
Two different people wrote books on oil cans. One was collector from Lawrence, Kansas (please forgive me I can't remember your name). I believe his book was somewhat a continuation of what Ed Love had started.
The other book on cans was actually two books, Vol. I, & II. written by a man and a woman, whose names I cannot remember.
Some sign books were also published during this time, the one I remember was nothing but going to a large collection, taking pictures of the signs and putting them in a book.
One more person, I should also mention is Rick Piese. He wrote a number of books (I can't remember how many) but they were mostly about what we call "smalls."
Also during this time some books came out that specialized on the histories and items that were from a particular oil company. I know at least two books were published about Gulf, and there were a number of books about other oil companies collectibles.
In 2013 I was asked to write a third edition of my gas pump books. At age 78 I never though I would write another book so I hadn't prepared anything (meaning after I wrote the 2nd book I quit collecting pictures/literature about any pumps that were not in the 2nd book). I made a big mistake, I said I could write a 3rd book in six months. It is now 2 years, 6 months since that time, but I really think I have written the best thing I ever did.
I know this is not entirely correct and any of you can correct anything I have said, or add any information I did not include, it is just what I remember.
The best thing that has come along that has lasted for almost 26 years is this website. This has been a continuing thing, not a book that is 6 years old, and in case you don't know his name the creator is Jim Potts, who started all this. Basically this has been a non-profit endeavor. I will also say this about Jim, every time we run into each other he will have a smile on his face. While I am the type of person who wants to tell you I wrote some gas pump books, Jim never seem to mention anything about all the work he has done to keep this website going.
Jim, thank you.
Jack Sim
Last edited by Jack Sim; Thu Apr 28 2016 01:52 AM.
