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In India, between 1893 and 1930, motorists often filled automobile fuel tanks using the ‘Drum and Measure’ method. Gasoline, stored in bulk steel drums, would be gravity-fed into gallon cans, which were then poured directly into vehicle tanks, through funnels.
The company also took up the challenge of reaching out to people in remote villages to ensure every home was supplied with kerosene. Thus, the development and promotion of efficient kerosene-burning appliances for lighting and cooking became an important part of its kerosene selling activity, which led to an economic and Cultural Revolution, as improved lighting led to improved productivity as factory workers laboured on into the night. Improved lighting also meant that public spaces could extend hours of operation, which made shops more readily available to consumers.
These pictures are of our Kerosene Agencies in 1920s.
By 1928, the first visible pump was introduced. The customer was able to see just how much fuel he was purchasing by the inclusion of a large glass cylinder that was hooked up to the pump, which was retrofitted to existing pumps. Later, the visible cylinder was replaced by the clock-style meter, which was a dominant feature of early 1930s gas pumps.
India’s first-ever drive-in service station was built in Mumbai, in 1928. Owned by M/s. JB Patel & Co, the kerbside pump at Lamington Road, South Mumbai, was the oldest Bharat Petroleum Fuel Station, with dispensing unit.
Jehangir Bapooji Patel, a senior member of the partnership firm, was a very popular and well-known figure locally and was very proud of the fact that he made the first footprint in Indian fuel retailing.
This fuel station was later strategically relocated to Charni Road East, near Opera House in South Mumbai.
It was in 1885 at Fort Wayne, Indiana where kerosene pump inventor S.F. Bowser sold his newly invented kerosene pump to the owner of a grocery shop. This was to solve the problem and mess of a storekeeper ladling flammable liquid into whatever random container the customer brought.
It was just for kerosene to fuel stoves and lamps and at that time gasoline was just a volatile by-product of refining kerosene, plus the automobile wasn’t invented and commercially available.
Bowser’s invention, which reliably measured and dispensed kerosene – a product in high demand for nearly 50 years – soon evolved into the metered gasoline pump.
First dispensers, between 1928-1935, were human powered, using force suction pump, operated by hand stroke liver action, which was easy and safe to use – an innovation at the time of launch.
This was really the start when dispensing units enclosed the mechanics of the pumps in cabinets and company logos started to appear on the pump, either directly on the cabinet or on a globe above the pump.
By 1945, motors of dispensing units were electrically driven, easier to use & more efficient with Mechanical Display Once the Second World War ended, cars got lower and therefore it became an obstacle trying to view meters from the car’s new lower perspective. As a result, new, shorter gasoline pumps were designed, which were called low-profile pumps. By and large, these pumps featured rounded edges, stainless steel trim, large meter faces, and simpler details than what was seen in the Art Deco designs of the 1930s.
In 1989, introduction of L&T Z-line pumps brought a revolution giving a new and modern image to a Fuel Station. This unit had better maintenance access and display panel giving better angle vision to modern vehicles, while displaying the quantity delivered in litres, value of the product sold and the rate simultaneously.
By 2001, the Multi Dispensing Unit arrived in the country. As the name suggest, it can deliver multi products from the same pump, which saves the space and was convenient to user, as the customer now could drive to any pedestal. It also used single display for all products for sales and volume with a white backlight and had the ability to both sides dispensing.
It can also be used by submersible pumps. These pumps are still in use, which you can see when you go for fuelling your vehicle next.