We came across these old vintage photos of a few Anderson-Prichard gas station pumps, which harken back to the golden age of cars in America.

In the photo, the earliest pump, on the left side, has its pumping apparatus clearly exposed.

This was fairly close to the time period when the earliest gas station pumps were manual, requiring the gas to be hand-pumped through turning a crank. It’s not entirely clear if this early Anderson-Prichard model was a hand-cranked one, although we believe the pump in it was likely powered by an electric motor.

The two other pumps have the pumping apparatus enclosed in the body casing, and were more electrically automated.

The glass globes on top of the old gas pumps from this time period have become highly prized among collectors, and can fetch high prices at auctions or online sales. These globes were often lit up from electric lightbulbs encased within the globes on top of the pumps.

You’ll notice in the picture on the left there is a pennant hanging in the background that says “Challenge”, and in the pump picture on the right, the globe says “Challenge” across the center disk inside the circle that reads “Anderson Prichard”. “Challenge” was a gas product trademark from the old “Col-Tex” oil company which produced Challenge gas and engine oil products. We believe that Anderson-Prichard acquired the Col-Tex company assets, including its refinery and the Challenge brand name.

Afterwards, the circular Anderson-Prichard Challenge logo was created to co-brand the names together, allowing Anderson-Prichard Oil company to leverage the highly identifiable Challenge gas product brandname.