Pratts Petroleum

[coppinpr]

I found this poor sole during the workshop bi-annual clear up last week . Bought it at a boot sale 8 years ago for £2.00. Being without a machine to restore I thought Id save it for prosperity . For those who dont know their history they are not quite what you might think they are.
They were not made for the public to use,quite the opposite in fact (hence the hefty(for its day) 3/- deposit on the can). This was how petrol was (a) supplied to the retailer and (b) how the auto owner bought his petrol. Before the days of petrol pumps(introduced after 1921) four of these cans full of petrol were slotted into open topped wooden cases and delivered to the retailer(usually a chemist in town or a blacksmith in the country. The car owner went in with his empty return can,swapped it for a full one (paying the cost of the contents(2 gallons) about 20p)and usually bought a second one at the same time, went out to his car and emptied one can into the cars tank and strapped the second to the clamp on the running board,took the one empty can back into the shop to save the deposit and drove off with 4 gallons of petrol in hand.Blacksmiths often had 20 or so of these stored in a room next to their forge,safety laws are a little different these days.They are usually dated on the base.Cant read the date on this one,to rusted, but it would be after 1925 as its "Pratts" and not the earlier "Pratt's".It should ,of course, be green with either green,yellow or black lettering but it looks better like this

Pratts was a British oil company until just after the government enforced break up of Standard oil in the US in 1911 when it was bought by one of the spin offs from the break up to become Anglo-American oil which became Esso in 1935.The name "Esso" is derived from the original parent company(Standard Oil)initials "ess o"