Ep. 40 Gas Stations

This week I look at gas stations. Come along for the ride this week as I ask, gas stations, how did that happen? Most of the world calls fuel petrol. The idea of fuel being called gas remains in North America. Literally on Wikipedia it says “the rest of the English speaking world calls it petrol which felt like a subtle shot at us over here.  "Vintage fuel pumps and pickup trucks. Shot in Infrared, light grain." In the UK, New Zealand, and South Africa a filling station is called a garage or a service station. Australians also call it a servo, which sounds so Australian. In india, pakistan and Bangladesh they call them petrol pump or petrol bunk. In Japan they call them gasoline stands. Which sounds right for some reason. The UK has 8,385 filling stations as of 2019,[1] down from about 18,000 in 1992[2] and a peak of around 40,000 in the mid-1960s. The US had 114,474 stations in 2012, according to the US Census Bureau, down from 118,756 in 2007 and 121,446 in 2002.[3][4][5] In Canada, the number is on the decline. As of December 2008, 12,684 were in operation, significantly down from about 20,000 stations recorded in 1989.[6] In Japan, the number dropped from a peak of 60,421 in 1994 to 40,357 at the end of 2009.[7] In Germany, the number dropped down to 14,300 in 2011.[8] In China, according to different reports, the total number of gas/oil stations (at the end of 2018) is about 106,000.[9] India—60,799 (as of November 2017) Russia—there were about 25,000 stations in the Russian Federation (2011) In Argentina, as of 2021, there are more than 5000 stations.        Service Stations and Filling Stations Before there were filling stations, consumers bought gasoline out of a barrel at the grocery or hardware store. But the new market for gas and consumer desire to buy gas more easily soon led to a landscape littered with gas stations. In the early years of motoring, before dedicated gasoline stations existed, motorists bought gasoline from hardware stores, general stores, pharmacies, and even blacksmiths. So you could pick up your gas for your car the same place you get your prescriptions.  These businesses had pre-existing relationships with the refineries through their sale of kerosene, used for stoves and as a lighting fuel. Stored in five-gallon cans stacked curbside or in large above-ground tanks, the fuel was poured into the automobile’s gas tank using a funnel with a chamois as a filter. Due to fire danger and a series of unfortunate mishaps, public concern and regulators forced the sale of gasoline to dedicated retail facilities outside of city centers, creating a new type of business called the filling station.  Both the filling station and the gas pump would evolve into what we now know as the modern gas station. Several locations around the United States claim to be the site of the nation’s (possibly even the world’s) first gasoline station, known to motorists at the time as filling stations.  According to the 1994 book “The Gas Station in America” by John Jakle and Keith Sculle, “Where and when the first gasoline station appeared is difficult to establish since various types of ‘stations’ appeared on the American scene between 1907 and 1913.”  The First Filling Station In 1913, Gulf Refining Company opened the world’s first drive-in gas station at Baum Boulevard and St Clair’s Street.  Baum Boulevard was then already known as “automobile row” because of the many car dealerships lining the street. Drivers could pull right in to the “Good Gulf Gasoline” station with their new vehicles and fill ’er up. The station offered free air and water, and sold the country’s first commercial road maps.In addition to selling gasoline, it offered crankcase service, tire installation, and free road maps, air, and water to motorists.  This was also the first architect-designed station. On its first day,