Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion when is the earliest gasoline pump?

i am doing a research and would like to know when was the first gasoline pump invented? I don't need the exact date, just the year or the decade may be fine. thanks.

John Barker (Gilbert & Barker) was making equipment in the 1860's to handle gas for lighting etc. Around 1908 he introduced a one gallon pump specifically for gasoline. This information was found in Bob Lee's "Gilbert & Barker" book published in 1989.

[This message has been edited by Ron Scobie (edited 08-13-2002).]

Ron -

We don't want to confuse the lad, here. Barker may very well have been making pumps of some sort in the 1860's, but they wouldn't have been gasoline pumps, per se. Gasoline was just a useless by-product of the refining process until the 1890's, at the earliest.

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Jim Hinds
Columbus, Indiana

While writing my gas pump identification book I accumulated as much information as I could find on the first gas pump.
Bowser introduced a gas pump in 1886 (Model 8, it is shown in my book) but this was not for automobiles, as they weren't invented yet, they were for general stores to pump gasoline for lamps and stoves. Tokheim made their first pump around 1892, again before automobiles.
I recently acquired a small brochure from the W.C. Garrison Mfg. Co. of New York City. As far as I can tell it is from around 1893. They manufactured "Cans and Tanks." Most were for kersoene, varnishes and oils, but on page 14 is a "Universal Pump Can" and on the label is printed "Gasoline Can." A picture of the hand pump is shown and there are two pictures of the can with the pump in it. One of the pictures shows the pump filling the glass part of what we now call a "Gone with the Wind" lamp.
Around 1900 many companies (Gilbert & Barker, Wayne, Western, Bowser, Tokheim) all made pumps that were designed for use in private garages for automobiles. It is difficult to determine which was the first.

I'm just a youngster to the hobby , but i have a sidewalk pump that was for distillate, or white gas , it has two spicots one for a hose to fill long way objects and take the hose off and screw on a down spout for small cans , it only pumps , pints , quarts and half gallons , its a bowser pump in a boyle daton cart , dated 1903 , they didn't have cars but they did have one lung engines that just about ran on anything once you got them started with (distillate) an it was also used in stoves , lamps , and to start coal on trains , even the first automobiles was started with (distillate ) then switched over to some thing not as conbustionable , john cook one of the founders of the seaside water pump company , later renamed seaside oil company in 1906, developed a posative displacement pump that would pump flamable liquids , that was in crude oils , but gas-o-lene was used before cars ,