[Phys-L] Re: Antique Gas Pump Question

[haar at PHYSICS.ARIZONA.EDU (Roger Haar)]

Hi,

        I think the attendant would manually pumped gas
from the undergraound tank into the glass globe
using the lever on the side of the pump station.
If you wanted to buy 7 gallons he would filled the
globe to the 7 gallon mark and then drain the
globe into your gas tank.  This was before
reliable metering pumps.  The glass globe also let
the buyer see that the gas was clean.

Thanks
Roger Haar

**************************************************************
Tony Wayne wrote:
> I'm looking a picture of a gas pump from the 1920's. It has a globe at the
> top of it and a set of numbers inside of the globe. Does anyone know how
> these "antique" gas pumps worked?
> -Tony
>
> The pump's picture is located at
> http://www.pennswoods.net/~rnorton/P1000023.JPG