c. Late 1910s to 1920s Tokheim Gas Pump

 This gas pump, with a Standard Oil logo on its side, was made by the Tokheim Oil Tank & Pump Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Built with wheels, it was moved around and used to dispense gasoline. It has a small lever that allowed the service station attendant (or other person operating the pump) to adjust the amount of gas being dispensed, either a pint, a quart, a half gallon, or a full gallon.

 The Tokheim Oil Tank & Pump Company was initially established by John J. Tokheim in 1901 as the Tokheim Manufacturing Company, located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Tokheim, who ran a general store in Thor, Iowa, saw the increasing demand for more gasoline and oil as more people with automobiles made their way onto the prairie. In response to this demand, especially to the need of stores to carry more than just a few gallon containers of fuel, Tokheim invented a domed oil pump that could store up to 50 gallons of fuel in 1898. Following up his success with this early pump, Tokheim established his company in Cedar Rapids, and his business quickly boomed. The Tokheim Manufacturing Company made a wide variety of tanks and pumps for gas and oil.
 When a group of investors from Fort Wayne, Indiana, purchased the company in 1918, they moved the company to Fort Wayne and changed the name to the Tokheim Oil Tank & Pump Company. Stuhr Museum's Tokheim gas pump must have been made after the company's name change in June 1918. After the change in name and location, the Tokheim company continued to be successful, even expanding into traffic signal manufacturing from 1926 to 1938. Tokheim not only survived the Great Depression but went on to make bombs for the U.S. and Britain during World War II.

Notes

Information on Tokheim can be found in Jack Sim, An Illustrated Guide to Gas Pumps: Identification and Price Guide, 2nd ed. (Iola, WI: Krause Publication, 2008), p. 22.

For additional information on Tokheim and his role in the development of the gas pump, see Scott Benjamin and Wayne Henderson, Gas Pump Collector’s Guide (Osceola, WI: MBI Publishing Company, 1996), p.5.