August10_2010

Botanical Glossary - Home - References Cited

The first gasoline pump was invented and sold by Sylvanus F. Bowser in Fort Wayne, Indiana on September 5, 1885. This pump was not used for automobiles, as they had not been invented yet. It was instead used for some kerosene lamps and stoves. He later improved upon the pump by adding safety measures, and also by adding a hose to directly dispense fuel into automobiles. For a while, the term bowser was used to refer to a vertical gasoline pump. Although the term is not used anymore in the United States, it still is used sometimes in Australia and New Zealand.

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 customers tank by gravity. When metering pumps came into use, a small glass globe with a turbine inside replaced the measuring cylinder but assured the customer that gasoline really was flowing into the tank.

Photos - Moving right along from the air compressor mining display to the Sandon Museum store front (which is closed at the time of these photos). Outside the museum entrance are some interesting bits and pieces of antiques. One of which is this red and green painted, vintage Gas pump The museum is in the Hunter Kendrick Block, one of a few buildings to survive the 1955 flood. Although I couldn't venture inside the building, there are large plate glass windows that allows a lens to see through and document.

Photos - Bottles old and new lined up along the bottom selves of the window display in the museum. An Orange Crush Bottle (brown bottle left in the center photo), and Old Blend Scotch Whiskey from White Horse Distillers (Glasgow and London) in the right photo, center.

The company began as the National Manufacturing Company of Dayton, Ohio, which was established to manufacture and sell the first mechanical cash register, invented in 1879 by James Ritty. In 1884 the company and patents were bought by John Henry Patterson and his brother Frank Jefferson Patterson and the firm was renamed the National Cash Register Company. Patterson formed NCR into one of the first modern American companies, introducing new, aggressive sales methods and business techniques. He established the first sales training school in 1893, and introduced a comprehensive social welfare program for his factory workers.

Photos - L-R - Near the entrance to the museum is an old National Cash Register.

A section of boardwalk that was once a major attraction in Sandon. In 1955 the town of Sandon was hit with a flood from Carpenter Creek - most of the buildings and boardwalk were destroyed.

A large rock with drill holes making it look like a large pincushion.

Click here for more photos of Historic Sandon for this day.