WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8: GAS PUMPS

Profile America — Wednesday, September 8th.  A device that most of us interact with every few days  was first built this week in 1905 — the gasoline pump.  Sylvanus Bowser of Fort Wayne, Indiana made the pump for a customer, basing it on an earlier design for pumping kerosene.  As the number of cars increased dramatically, the pumps became very popular.  Eventually, his name became a generic term for a fuel dispenser and gas pumps in New Zealand and Australia are still called "Bowsers."  Across the U.S., there are 117,000 gas stations.  Each year, the pumps at these stations dispense more than 176 billion gallons of gasoline.  You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at www.census.gov.

Sources:  Statistical Abstract of the United States 2010, t. 1014, 1066

Profile America is produced by the Public Information Office of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on a monthly CD or on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button).  

SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau

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http://www.census.gov