🧠 Fun Fact Friday: Quiz Time – 1994 Edition
- Frances Yeager
- 17 hours ago
- 1 min read
Alright, 1994 was a big year: Pulp Fiction dropped, Friends debuted, and apparently, petroleum tech was poppin' off too. So let’s crack this quiz:
Which of the following petroleum-related inventions landed a patent in 1994?
A) The first chip-reader “pay-at-the-pump” card slot.
B) A fuel-dispensing nozzle with controlled vapor recovery.
C) A double-wall fiberglass storage tank with built-in leak alarms.
D) A handheld barcode scanner for tracking lube-oil drums.
Answer: 🅱️!
😎 In 1994, Emco Wheaton patented a fuel-dispensing nozzle with controlled vapor recovery (think Stage II on steroids). The nozzle uses magnets and a tiny aux-valve to dial in vapor suction in real-time, so you only pull back what you pump – slashing fugitive VOCs and keeping regulators off operators’ backs.
Before this upgrade, vapor systems tended to over-slurp air and fuel fumes, dumping excess vapor back into the underground tank (and your compliance budget). Matching vapor flow to fuel flow was a major efficiency win and set the template for the boot-less, vacuum-assist gear you see today. By the mid-’90s, more than 300k nozzles nationwide had already switched to vapor recovery and EPA rules were tightening fast.
At E.O. Habhegger, we rode that wave right alongside station owners, stocking the earliest balance-boot nozzles and today’s smart, ORVR-friendly models. Need help future-proofing your forecourt? Slide into our DMs (or, you know, call us like it’s 1994).