Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Showcase and Stories, Petroliana Company Of The Month for June 2004

Diesel. Circa 1935-50.

Ethyl ad glass.

Very rare U.S. Motor spec. ad glass.

Rare Pennant ad glass.

Early flanged tin sign.

Misc. 5 gallon cans behind some "off brand" cans.

Embossed Sinclair price box for a visable pump.

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Circa 1934

5qt. circa 1934


5qt. circa 1935

Sorry for the blurry picture. This is a graphic 5 panel map from 1933.

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Circa 1935

Circa 1935

Here are two more quarts from the mid thirties.

By the early 1930's Sinclair had bought or merged with:
Cudahy
Union Petroleum (not Union Oil)
Puritain Oil
Parco
Rio Grande
Keith
Prairie Pipeline
the eastern marketing of Richfield.
There were other aquisitions as well.

Harry Sinclair was also involved with the re-organization of the western Richfield operation.

Sinclair had extensive holdings in Europe and Mexico as well. The European operation was sold off prior to WWII.

The war years were good to Sinclair. The war effort required new lubricants and aviation gas which Sinclair (and others) provided at a nice profit.

Uniform patches from the 40's through the 60's.


Lube guides from 1948 and 1952.

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Maps from the 40's and 50's.


1 gallon Anti-Freeze can from the 1940's.


Unusual battery manual from Sinclair.

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Sinclair's expansion continued throughout the 30's and early 40's. By the late 40's stations were closing in rural areas and more stations were being built in stronger markets in the cities.

Harry Sinclair stepped down at the end of 1948. He had done a great job of growing his company, but left two major problems for his successors. Debt had been a problem from the early days, and was still a problem in 1948. The other problem was more important. Sinclair hadn't kept up with the production end of the business. By the mid 50's they were buying as much as 60% of their crude oil from other producers.

1947 calendar.

Inside of '47 calendar.

Attendant's hat.