NO WAITING

The two Shell gasoline pumps on Main Street in Bodie State Historic Park are particularly interesting because they mark the point when Bodie’s old mining-town world was being overtaken by the automobile. They stand beside the Boone Store and Warehouse at Main and Green Streets, where photographs show them paired with a 1927 Dodge Graham truck.

These are “visible” gasoline pumps, an early type of petrol pump used principally during the 1910s and 1920s. Unlike the familiar enclosed pumps with a mechanical numerical meter, these pumps had a large transparent, graduated glass cylinder mounted prominently on the pump. The attendant would pump gasoline from the underground storage tank into the cylinder, allowing the customer to see both the quantity and appearance of the gasoline before it was released into the automobile. This visibility was important. Earlier “blind” pumps simply delivered gasoline without the customer being able to see the quantity being measured. Visible pumps became popular partly because motorists were concerned about getting the amount of fuel they had paid for. The basic operation was quite different from a modern pump. An attendant operated a hand crank or lever, drawing fuel up into the elevated glass measuring chamber. Once the desired amount had been measured, a valve allowed the gasoline to flow through the hose into the vehicle. The pump therefore functioned almost like a combination of measuring vessel and dispenser.