Gasoline "pump"

This 13-gallon hot water tank became the first “gas pump” in Canada in 1907. In the early 1900s, Imperial Oil Ltd. at Smythe and Cambie Streets supplied gasoline to early automobile owners (including John Hendry who owned the Oldsmobile runabout displayed in the Museum). Filling auto tanks by hand with buckets of gas was slow and dangerous. Workers at Imperial Oil came up with the idea of mounting the hot water tank high enough that gravity would deliver gas into the car. A pipefitter installed the fitting and a measuring gauge, and the first gas pump was created.