The exact page text, read by your browser's voice.
Petroleum dispensing systems · Tokheim Corporation
On the record
Founded: 1901, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with a 1900 variant flagged. NOT founded in Fort Wayne. The International Directory of Company Histories, ACGSI and Dover Fueling Solutions (“Since 1901”) agree on 1901 for the Tokheim Manufacturing Company in Cedar Rapids. Prabook, summarising the Biographical Dictionary of Iowa, says John Tokheim organised the company later in 1900, after a January 1900 first patent; organisation (1900) vs incorporation (1901) may be two steps, but no primary incorporation record was retrieved, so both are carried. Claims that Tokheim was “founded in 1898 in Cedar Rapids” conflate the 1898 invention (Thor, Iowa) with the company and are misidentified. Fort Wayne arrival: 1918: a consortium led by Ralph F. Diserens purchased the company in 1918 and relocated its entire operations to Fort Wayne; it was re-incorporated as the Tokheim Oil Tank and Pump Company, capitalised at $200,000.
Founder: John J. Tokheim (17 May 1871, Odda, Norway – 15 March 1941). A Norwegian immigrant, tin-shop keeper in Thor, Iowa, from 1896, he devised an underground gasoline storage system served by a modified pump in 1898 — the Tokheim Dome Oil Pump / visible measuring pump. A single biographical chain adds that he lost control in 1910–11, was forced out, and did not reclaim the use of his own name until the 1918 sale, single-chain; simplified accounts that he simply “sold his company in 1918” are not followed.
What it did: designed, manufactured and serviced petroleum dispensing systems — visible and measuring gasoline pumps and oil tanks, then computing pumps, service-station equipment, card- and cash-activated transaction and point-of-sale systems, commercial dispensers (Gasboy), and retail automation and payment systems.
Course (Fort Wayne): within six months of arrival the plant had a tank shop, machine shop, assembly plant, paint and testing departments. Firsts in hand: the industry’s first power pump with an air separator (1930), the first Tokheim computing pumps showing gallons and dollars/cents (1934), and the “Stationliter” pump (1936). In World War II the Fort Wayne plant built bombs — RAF demolition bombs and trench-mortar bombs under British contracts, then U.S. contracts; the News-Sentinel war history states plainly: “Bombs were built at the Tokheim and Wayne Pump plants.” Peak: by the mid-1990s Tokheim was the undisputed North American gasoline-dispensing market leader, with sales of $279 million and 3,000 employees company-wide in 1996 (not a Fort Wayne headcount). Fort Wayne addresses: 1600 Wabash Avenue (a 1995 city tax-abatement file would retain 625 full-time Fort Wayne jobs there) and 10501 Corporate Drive. By late 2002 about 500 people remained in Fort Wayne. Catalogue caution: the Smithsonian describes a “Gasoline Pump, 1910” as made by “The Tokheim Oil Tank and Pump Company, of Fort Wayne” — that Fort Wayne name dates from 1918, so the catalogue entry as stated is anachronistic and is flagged misidentified as catalogued.
Fate: independent corporation ended by bankruptcy and split sale; Fort Wayne plant closed 2006; brand still operating outside Fort Wayne — the three endings are kept distinct. First bankruptcy: a joint prepackaged plan filed 28 August 2000, confirmed 4 October 2000 (SEC). Second: Tokheim Corp. and five subsidiaries filed Chapter 11 on 21 November 2002 (District of Delaware) (SEC). The North American assets were auctioned 8 February 2003 and the corporation was liquidated 6 August 2003 / proven in parts. The Fort Wayne plant closed 28 February 2006, thin chain. The international business passed AXA (2003) and Cognetas (2005) to Dover, which completed its acquisition of Tokheim Group S.A.S.’s dispenser and systems businesses on 7 January 2016 (Dover/OPW releases); Tokheim continues today as a brand under Dover Fueling Solutions, headquartered outside Fort Wayne.
Find them on this page
- § 05 — business
Sources: International Directory of Company Histories, Tokheim Corporation — https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/tokheim-corporation ; ACGSI, T Named Places — https://www.acgsi.org/genweb/county/places/t-named-places-in-allen-county-indiana.html ; Prabook / Biographical Dictionary of Iowa, John J. Tokheim — https://prabook.com/web/john.tokheim/3779086 ; SEC filings (2000 plan; 2002 Chapter 11) — http://pdf.secdatabase.com/1658/0000950172-03-000671.pdf ; City of Fort Wayne Ordinance R-95-11-06 (1995) — https://archive.org/download/FWCityCouncil-Ordinance-R-95-11-06/FWCityCouncil-Ordinance-R-95-11-06.pdf ; Dover / OPW press release, 7 Jan 2016 — https://www.opwglobal.com/docs/libraries/kps-emea/distributor-releases/distributor-releases/press-release_opw_tokheim-acquisition.pdf?sfvrsn=3e79b6c4_4 ; Dover Fueling Solutions, Tokheim brand page — https://www.doverfuelingsolutions.com/europe/en/products-and-solutions/fuel-dispensers/tokheim.html . Sources as cited in the profile.