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Gasoline pump
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Gasoline pump
A gasoline pump or fuel dispenser is a machine at a filling station that is used to pump gasoline (petrol), diesel, or other types of liquid fuel into vehicles. Gasoline pumps are also known as bowsers or petrol bowsers (in Australia and South Africa), petrol pumps (in Commonwealth countries), or gas pumps (in North America).
The first gasoline pump was invented and sold by Sylvanus Bowser in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on September 5, 1885, pre-dating the automobile industry—it was commonly used to dispense the kerosene used in lamps and stoves. He later improved upon the pump by adding safety measures, and by adding a hose to directly dispense fuel into automobiles. For a while,[vague][when?] the term bowser was used to refer to a vertical gasoline pump. In the United States this term is now only used for trucks that carry and dispense fuel to large aircraft at airports,[citation needed] but it is still used sometimes in Australia and New Zealand.
The first gasoline pump was patented by Norwegian John J. Tokheim in 1901. The Tokheim pump was named after him. Fuel retail industry giant OPW (a Dover company) acquired Tokheim in 2016.[citation needed]
Many early gasoline pumps had a calibrated glass cylinder on top. The desired quantity of fuel was pumped up into the cylinder as indicated by the calibration. Then the pumping was stopped and the gasoline was let out into the customer's tank by gravity. When metering pumps came into use, a small glass globe with a turbine inside replaced the measuring cylinder to show the customer that gasoline really was flowing into the tank.[citation needed] The first measured gas pump, commercially produced by Gilbarco in 1911, lacked this globe, with customers having to rely on the gas station owner to have calibrated it accurately.
A modern gasoline pump is divided into two main parts – an electronic "head" containing an embedded computer to control the action of the pump, drive the pump's displays, and communicate to an indoor sales system; and a mechanical section which (in a self-contained unit) has an electric motor, pumping unit, meters, pulsers and valves to physically pump and control the fuel flow.
In some cases the actual pump may be sealed and immersed inside the fuel tanks on a site, in which case it is known as a submersible pump. In general, submersible solutions in Europe are installed in hotter countries, where suction pumps may have problems overcoming cavitation with warm fuels or when the distance from tank to pump is longer than a suction pump can manage.
In modern pumps, the major variations are in the number of hoses or grades they can dispense, the physical shape, and additional hardware for services such as pay at the pump and attendant tag readers.
Light passenger vehicles pump up to about 50 litres (13 US gallons) per minute (the United States limits this to 10 US gallons [38 litres] per minute); pumps serving trucks and other large vehicles have a higher flow rate, up to 130 litres (34 US gallons) per minute in the UK and 40 US gallons (150 litres) in the US. This flow rate is based on the diameter of the vehicle's fuel filling pipe, which limits flow to these amounts.
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Gasoline pump
A gasoline pump or fuel dispenser is a machine at a filling station that is used to pump gasoline (petrol), diesel, or other types of liquid fuel into vehicles. Gasoline pumps are also known as bowsers or petrol bowsers (in Australia and South Africa), petrol pumps (in Commonwealth countries), or gas pumps (in North America).
The first gasoline pump was invented and sold by Sylvanus Bowser in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on September 5, 1885, pre-dating the automobile industry—it was commonly used to dispense the kerosene used in lamps and stoves. He later improved upon the pump by adding safety measures, and by adding a hose to directly dispense fuel into automobiles. For a while,[vague][when?] the term bowser was used to refer to a vertical gasoline pump. In the United States this term is now only used for trucks that carry and dispense fuel to large aircraft at airports,[citation needed] but it is still used sometimes in Australia and New Zealand.
The first gasoline pump was patented by Norwegian John J. Tokheim in 1901. The Tokheim pump was named after him. Fuel retail industry giant OPW (a Dover company) acquired Tokheim in 2016.[citation needed]
Many early gasoline pumps had a calibrated glass cylinder on top. The desired quantity of fuel was pumped up into the cylinder as indicated by the calibration. Then the pumping was stopped and the gasoline was let out into the customer's tank by gravity. When metering pumps came into use, a small glass globe with a turbine inside replaced the measuring cylinder to show the customer that gasoline really was flowing into the tank.[citation needed] The first measured gas pump, commercially produced by Gilbarco in 1911, lacked this globe, with customers having to rely on the gas station owner to have calibrated it accurately.
A modern gasoline pump is divided into two main parts – an electronic "head" containing an embedded computer to control the action of the pump, drive the pump's displays, and communicate to an indoor sales system; and a mechanical section which (in a self-contained unit) has an electric motor, pumping unit, meters, pulsers and valves to physically pump and control the fuel flow.
In some cases the actual pump may be sealed and immersed inside the fuel tanks on a site, in which case it is known as a submersible pump. In general, submersible solutions in Europe are installed in hotter countries, where suction pumps may have problems overcoming cavitation with warm fuels or when the distance from tank to pump is longer than a suction pump can manage.
In modern pumps, the major variations are in the number of hoses or grades they can dispense, the physical shape, and additional hardware for services such as pay at the pump and attendant tag readers.
Light passenger vehicles pump up to about 50 litres (13 US gallons) per minute (the United States limits this to 10 US gallons [38 litres] per minute); pumps serving trucks and other large vehicles have a higher flow rate, up to 130 litres (34 US gallons) per minute in the UK and 40 US gallons (150 litres) in the US. This flow rate is based on the diameter of the vehicle's fuel filling pipe, which limits flow to these amounts.
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