The gas pump was invented by several people over many years. In Fort Wayne, Indiana back in the 1880's a man named Sylvans Bowser Invented a new kind of pump, with a plunger that would be used to push kerosene up through a pipe.

The first pump was delivered to a grocer Jake Gumper, in 1885. The pump was used on a barrell of kerosene in his store. The Bowser pump company was formed and continued to sell pumps. After several years, some Bowser employees left the company and started their own pump company. They called it the Wayne Pump Company and began producing similar products for the kerosene trade.

In 1898, a hardware merchant, John Tokheim, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, built a gasoline pump that lifted fuel from an underground tank and dispensed it through a hose into a car or tank. The pump became so popular that John started a company in 1901 called the Tokheim Manufacturing Company, to build the pumps.

In 1905 the Bowser Company decided to enter the gas pumps business too. Gulf Oil opened the first filling station in Pittsburg, PA in 1913 and within two years filling stations were opening all across the country. In 1916, a 19 year old, Jack Fleckenstein developed a glass measuring device that could be fitted to most existing pumps. In 1918 the Wayne Pump Company entered the business with its own self contained visible pump system. Mechanical measuring pumps were introduced in 1925 and used a clock dial to indicate gallons pumped. In 1934 the Wayne Pump Company introduced an odometer style pump with rotating numbers that would indicate both quantity of gallons and cost.

Since the beginning of the gas pump, over 62 american companies have built pumps and improvements continue to be made. Today, old gas pumps are collected and displayed as antique treasures of petroleum memorabilia.