WASHINGTON, Sept. 5, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

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PUMPING GAS

Profile AmericaSaturday, September 5th. A device that many of us line up to use every few days or weeks was first unveiled on this date in 1885 — the gas pump. Sylvanus Bowser of Fort Wayne, Indiana made the pump for a customer to dispense a single barrel of fuel for lamps and stoves. As one might expect, the advent of automobiles spurred the development, popularity and distribution of the gas pump. Eventually, the inventor's name became a generic term for a fuel dispenser, and gas pumps in New Zealand and Australia are still called a "bowser." Across the U.S., there are more than 112,000 gas stations doing over a half-trillion dollars worth of annual business. Each year, the pumps at these stations dispense nearly 170 billion gallons of gasoline and special fuels, including diesel. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at www.census.gov.

Sources: Kane's Famous First Facts, 4410
First use, capacity and term "bowser": http://sciencenetlinks.com/daily-content/9/5/ 
Gasoline stations/NAICS 447: http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ECN_2012_US_00A1&prodType=table 
Gas station receipts/NAICS 447: http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ECN_2012_US_00A1&prodType=table 
Gallons: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2013/mf27.cfm

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button). 

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau

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