Bowser invented the gasoline pump in 1885.

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Famous Stories & the Record

INDUSTRY

Wrong fuel. The pump S. F. Bowser sold on 5 September 1885 dispensed kerosene; his patent is 1887; the self-measuring gasoline storage pump is 1905, the era when a Bowser employee's coinage “filling station” attaches.

The corrected claim is stronger than the legend: Bowser, Wayne Pump and Tokheim made Fort Wayne the place that industrialised measured fuel dispensing.

Sources: Indiana Landmarks, indianalandmarks.org; ACGSI, acgsi.org

The dates around the claim, set out plainly: the 5 September 1885 sale was of a kerosene pump, and the sources checked for this record do not name the buyer, so the file prints the date without one rather than borrow a name. Bowser's patent followed in 1887, the business grew into S. F. Bowser & Company, and the self-measuring gasoline pump of 1905 arrived with the automobile trade it would go on to supply. The Bowser Building still stands as the industry's local monument — the Indiana Landmarks account cited above is its history — and with Wayne Pump and Tokheim beside it, Fort Wayne was a three-company town in the measured dispensing of fuel.

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Source: Bowser invented the gasoline pump in 1885., Moosed History by Project Moosed, https://history.projectmoosed.com/usa/midwest/indiana/fort-wayne/stories-told/file-11-bowser-invented-the-gasoline-pump-in/

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  title        = {{Bowser invented the gasoline pump in 1885.}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://history.projectmoosed.com/usa/midwest/indiana/fort-wayne/stories-told/file-11-bowser-invented-the-gasoline-pump-in/}},
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  note         = {Moosed History. Last updated 2026-11-10. Accessed 2026-11-10},
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