Quote:
Originally Posted by extrashaky
That's not true. You could pump your own gas up until 1949, and then suddenly you couldn't. The change had 100% to do with typical New Jersey corruption..
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OK, that is historically accurate for NJ but it wasn't limited to there, NJ is just the last holdout. Before the 1940s the pumps were so complicated the basically required "full service". When the more automated pumps started showing up on the market there was a push to ban self service nationwide for "safety". it wasn't until the 1960s and 70s that self-service became prevalent and that required changes in laws pretty much nationwide.
In fact when I first started to drive (1975) in NC you we just starting to be able to pump your own gas at a service station, and that was only in certain jurisdictions that had changed their local laws.