Mobil - Cylindrical Pump Premiere - from Mobil Photo Library 1973
This is a genuine Mobil press photograph showing the launch of Britain's first Eliot Noyes designed circular pumps under circular canopies. The pumps were finished in brushed aluminium and the circular canopies were a radical design, some stations had individual circular canopies as seen on the A6 at Redhill, Leicestershire, whereas this one has a standard rectangular canopy but with circular hollowing on the underside. They were introduced into Britain well after their first appearance in the USA - almost ten years after the first American forecourt had been redesigned the first ones in Britian started to get radically altered. Noyes was a renowned modernist architect and designer and Mobil hired him to give their entire downstream business a "space-age" makeover under the project title "operation Pegasus". I remember well these being introduced - they stood out against all other petrol stations and really did seem ultra modern at that time. Eventually some 19,000 outlets worldwide got this treatment. In the 1980's Cambridge had several Mobil petrol stations with this kind of design. The photo is interesting beyond just the bit of history it represents as it shows also that five star petrol was once available and also very much highlights that however sexy and radical the new pumps were, there was still the need to have a couple of leggy ladies take part in the press release publicity!
Mobil - Cylindrical Pump Premiere - from Mobil Photo Library 1973
This is a genuine Mobil press photograph showing the launch of Britain's first Eliot Noyes designed circular pumps under circular canopies. The pumps were finished in brushed aluminium and the circular canopies were a radical design, some stations had individual circular canopies as seen on the A6 at Redhill, Leicestershire, whereas this one has a standard rectangular canopy but with circular hollowing on the underside. They were introduced into Britain well after their first appearance in the USA - almost ten years after the first American forecourt had been redesigned the first ones in Britian started to get radically altered. Noyes was a renowned modernist architect and designer and Mobil hired him to give their entire downstream business a "space-age" makeover under the project title "operation Pegasus". I remember well these being introduced - they stood out against all other petrol stations and really did seem ultra modern at that time. Eventually some 19,000 outlets worldwide got this treatment. In the 1980's Cambridge had several Mobil petrol stations with this kind of design. The photo is interesting beyond just the bit of history it represents as it shows also that five star petrol was once available and also very much highlights that however sexy and radical the new pumps were, there was still the need to have a couple of leggy ladies take part in the press release publicity!