Sylvanus Bowser

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Sylvanus Bowser (died 1938) is widely credited with inventing the automobile fuel pump. Bowser Avenue in his hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana is named after him.^[1]

Bowser, marketed his patented kerosene pump starting in 1885. The introduction of automobiles, mainly powered by gasoline, led him to develop it into the "Self-Measuring Gasoline Storage Pump", launched in 1905.

Bowser's invention operated with a manual suction pump, which dispensed the gasoline into the car through a flexible hose. The 50-gallon metal storage tank, housed in a wooden cabinet, could be set up at the curbside in front of a store.

Under the banner of his company, S. F. Bowser & Company, this activity expanded to the measurement and handling of many commercial liquids. Bowser opened branches around the world, and bowser became a generic term for fuel dispensers, then fuel tankers (especially on airfields), then finally for any kind of self-propelled liquid tanker with the ability to dispense direct to consumers. In New Zealand and Australia it is still a generic term for consumer fuel pumps.

The Bowser company was acquired in 1969 by Keene Corporation; the vacuum oil purification side of the business was divested by Keene in 1978, subsequently trading under the name Enervac.^[2] Keene filed for bankruptcy in 1993 due to a large number of asbestos-related lawsuits.

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