Posted 9 years ago
Rattletrap
(886 items)
It is old history that the First real drive thru gas station in America was built by Gulf and sold "That Good Gulf" gas in 1913. It was in Pittsburg and was the latest thing around. Previously gas was sold by auto dealers, drug stores, and "convenience stores" along with a variety of other unlikely places in small towns and big towns alike. The earliest gas pumps were called pre-visibles as you could not see what was being pumped in to your car. In the teens the visible gas pump came out and soon became popular as many sellers of fuel sold very contaminated fuel and buyers wanted to see what they put in to their fuel tanks after having to drain them a time or two from buying dirty fuel. Gulf was also the company that pioneered deep water drilling and has made many of the latest oil reservoir finds possible due to their unselfish sharing of deep water drilling technology with other companies in the industry. We owe a big debt to the Gulf Oil Company for their pioneering spirit and innovation and few Americans even know about them. Keep on hunting as there are still a lot of cool signs out their to be found! This particular Gulf Sign is from the 1940s vintage as can be seen by the shaded lines at the bottom of the letters. They also sold "No Nox" gas (higher octane) and a variety of other branding names for their fuel. You can see three styles of Gulf signs at aaaLakeside Storage in Provo and it's all still FREE.
They called them curb pumps too, and they were little like knee high maybe waist high. I hope to get a Gulf Dealer sign soon, the local Gulf bulk dealer junked all the signs and poles he had a couple of years before I had the room to collect the big stuff:( I heard he had stacks and stacks of them, he sold some and I guess he just got tired of looking at it and sent it to the scrap yard. His family supplied the entire area with Gulf gas from Starke Fl to Palatka Fl.
Yep! We have a couple of them of different kinds shapes and sizes. Curb pumps. Wow on the Gulf Dealer!!! That is a heart breaker! Sounds like one of our stories. We didn't get started collecting signs until 2013 and missed all the good deals & cheap prices as well. As usual we are the "Johhny Come Lately" guys that arrive to hear the sad stories like the one you tell. Fortunately there are a lot of Gulf signs out there and the prices are much lower on them than on most other brands. Good Luck & be patient. You will get one.
Bobby hole,
Thx for the love it
Just thought I would add this HERE.....That places here are running out of Gas due to the Fort mac Fire, as SUNCOR has not been making any in its Alberta location, which in turn is affecting the west and East of that provinces. Till they do, Gas is going to be harder to find:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/gas-stations-petro-canada-shortage-refinery-1.3614301
Mind you -- I think ( Canadian ) Husky and Co-op Gas Refineries are not located in Alberta, so some of their Gas stations might NOT be affected as much as the ones that get their supplies from SUNCOR Gas refinery
Antiquerose
Yes, it's amazing how big an impact it can make on such a huge area when just one source of crude or refinery is shut down. Im in Croatia where they have no oil and seeing a very different picture at gas stations than at home in the USA. Haven't seen any porcelain signs yet either!