LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - JUNE 27, 2021 by Lynne Belluscio Many years ago, I drove a car that had a broken gas gauge. I ran out of gas three times because I didn’t compute miles per gallon and keep an eye on the odometer. So, imagine driving the 1908 Cadillac that is on exhibit at the Historical Society. No gas gauge or odometer. I know that it has a 10 gallon gas tank which is located under the hood, (the motor is under the seat) but I have looked at the specifications for the car, and am not sure how many miles per gallon it was supposed to achieve. The reason I am writing about this, is because we received a wooden gas stick with some of the things in the Arnold Kelly collection. I recognized it right away, because there was a gas stick in the boot of the Cadillac. It was almost thrown away, until some museum friends who were helping do an inventory of the boot, discovered it. The one in the Cadillac is very dark, but clearly marked “Gasoline Gauge.” The one that came with the Kelly collection, is marked: “Townsend Oil Company Wholesale and Retail Le Roy N.Y, Bank Street Station Free Parking, The Grove Free Tourist Camping Ground” On the reverse side it reads “This side for Ford Cars Measure in Gallons.” I checked with a friend, and confirmed that because gas tanks were different shapes the wooden gas sticks were calibrated for different cars. The Ford Model T, which was introduced in 1908, had a 10 gallon tank located under the seat. From what I can find on line, it could travel 21 miles per gallon which would allow about 200 miles on a tank of gas. Another interesting fact about the model T, is that to make the car more affordable, Henry Ford had the car designed with a gravity feed fuel system, so that it didn’t need a fuel pump. This was a problem for the Model T because when the tank was low on gas, the car could not go up hill. The gas gauge was first introduced by Studebaker in 1914, but did not become standard equipment on automobiles until the 1930s. In the early years, there weren’t too many gas stations. The Townsend Gas Station on Bank Street wasn’t established until 1921, but people were driving automobiles for at least fifteen years before that. The Woodwards owned a lot of cars, and probably had their own supply of gas with a hand crank pump. Adventuring out, often meant knowing friends who had gas tanks, or only going half the distance of the capacity of the gas tank and then turning around to come home. However, many automobiles like the Model T ford, did not have an odometer and it wasn’t until 1925 that most cars were equipped with odometers. The Townsend gas stick was manufactured by the Atwater Kent Manufacturingworks in Philadelphia. These sticks were patented May 19, 1909, and were calibrated for tanks that were round, oval or square. The back could be used for advertising and were given out free by local gas stations. I suspect that Townsend gas sticks were given out during the 1920s. Gas Gauge Townsend Gas Station on Bank Street 1940