Fuel Pumps

The fuel pump was invented in the late nineteenth century and so predates the invention of the motor car. This should not be too surprising as our Victorian forebears did use fuel for other things. The original use of a fuel pump was for dispensing fuel for use in kerosene lamps and stoves. This was of course before the days of widespread use of electricity, indeed, before the development of the national grid, and even before the development of the gas network. Fuel had to be physically delivered to homes and the workplace.

Needless to say, handling fuel can be a dangerous activity, especially if member of the public are expected to use the pump themselves and so safety measures were added, not least of which was the introduction of a hose which greatly aided the accuracy and efficiency of actually dispensing fuel into a container, and later into cars.

Early in their development the fuel pump was known as a bowser, but the name faded out of use and simply became known as a fuel pump, or just pump. The name did persist in Australia and New Zealand where even today the fuel pumps is known as a bowser.

The modern fuel pump does not just do one thing or just pump one type of fuel. A feature of the modern fuel pump is that it has a number of hoses to dispense different types of fuel, and the addition of a pay-at-the-pump facility.

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