Independent Boosts Profits with Automatic Equipment

Morse Brothers Co.

National Petroleum News - January 16, 1952

Staff

Push-button control has been achieved on much of the equipment at the new service station of Morse Brothers Co. Nerve-center is located in the office and controls lights, intercommunication, restroom door locks and pumps.

The station also is designed to appeal to women. Restroom doors are unlocked electrically from the island, and attractive lounge has an easy chair, table and magazines, so a woman customer may wait “out of the way of the men” while her car is being serviced.

These features solve some of the criticisms women have reguarding stations as given in a talk by Mrs. Casilda V.A. Wyman, manager of commercial research of the Farm Journal.

A new service station built by Morse Brothers Co. at Lisbon Falls, ME., incorporates several unusual features, including electric locks for restroom doors and an intercommunications system. It can be classed as a semi-automatic operation in many ways.

Plans for the new station were started in 1946 when it was know that a new highway was to be built past the company’s old station. About that time, the company’s owners- William C. and George H Morse- saw an article in National Petroleum News featuring an Esso Standard Oil Co. station which impressed them as the ideal station.

Using the basic design of the new Esso station, a number of new ideas were worked out by the company. These are:

An intercommunication system tied with all pump islands, with the office and the shop. The company has found the system indispensable. It is a time-saver as the pump operator is able to transact all business with the office and shop without leaving the customer.

Electric door locks for restrooms. The system enables the man on the island to press a button to unlock either door and to cause them to remain locked until openend.

The company operates in a community with a population of 6,000. In the radius of six miles over which the company operates, 1,000 families are supplied with heating oils, and LP-gas. Latest addition is the sale of home appliances, such as combination oil and gas ranges, space heaters, and hot water heaters. The company says these items are a perpetual gallonage builder.

The new station serves also as the company headquarters, sales room and distribution point. Actually it is a small bulk plant and station combined but does not lose any of its sales appeal to motorists because of its heating oil business.
The station has two islands of two pumps each on the main street side of the building. These dispense regular and premium gasoline. An island on a side street with two pumps dispenses range oil and Diesel fuel. An oil service cabinet is located on the two gasoline pump islands and one pylon fluorescent light is located on each of the three dispensing areas.

Electric Restroom Locks- The office panel for the electric lock circuit is standard equipment obtainable from any electric supply house, the company says. Relays used are Minneapolis Honeywell No. R-182A but discarded oil burner stack controls—if relay operates—may be used by eliminating the safety units. Transformer is a tri-volt 6-12-18 secondary type with a 110-volt primary. Morse used the 18-volt side with two No.18 wires since it was some distance from the locks and distance and wire size must be calculated for voltage drop for satisfactory operation.

The door lock and the contactor were secured from Edwards of Norwalk, Conn. This unit closes the circuit with pressure on the button or with the door closed. (The push button switches are of the automobile type, panel mount for starter solenoid, sequence of operation.)

The power supplying the electric door locks and the intercommunication system is taken from one side of the pump switch, splitting the circuit from 220 volts to 110 volts. This eliminates the risk of leaving the units on after closing hours.

The toggle switch one the panel in the office is left on positive position at all times and it used to only lock the doors in case of error. A pilot light burns when door is unlocked.

In operation, pressing the push button at any station causes current to flow from with to blue terminal in the relay causing to become energized and then held by white and red circuits. Current flows through the contactor at the restroom door, providing it is closed to exert pressure for holding circuit in this unit.

The instant the relay is energized it sends 110 volts through the transformer which reduces it to 18 volts and this is applied to the door lock, keeping the door unlocked until opened, which releases the pressure on the contactor, breaking the red and white circuits in the relay and automatically locking the door.

Regular bathroom door sets are used on the doors, the type with plunger lock in the center of the knob. This lock is soldered in lock positon giving the lock positive control. The door can be opened at any time manually from the inside.

Advantages—The company says it benefits as much from use of the electric lock as the customer. It eliminates the need for keys and when the station attendant presses the button at the island, his responsibility is over. Very few customers ask for the key and the majority enjoy the privacy of not being noticed, company says. Many customers inquire about the controls when they return to their cars.

Another advantage in cold weather is ability to press the lock button in the office to determine whether the door is closed. If the door is opened the signal light will staty on only as long as one exerts pressure on the push button as the contactor breaks the circuit. Expensive freezeups and other inconvenience is avoided, company says.

Intercommunication—The intercommunication system consists of a master station located at the office desk, and two speakers, on over the stockroom counter and another in the lubritorium. A person receiving a call from the master station can reply from any position range at his unit with no manual operation required. The pump island units are manually operated, press the button to talk with the office and the office can talk back as long as the button is held.

Advantages—The intercommunication system is used for numerous purposes, company says.  Lubrication appointments, heating oil orders, charge accounts, TBA orders and almost any other thing the customer wants can be cared for without either the attendant or the motorist leaving the island. For example, a motorist may have to go to the station office to cash his pay check. The customer drives in to the pump island. He tells the attendant to fill the tank and otherwise service the car. Then the motorist proceeds to the office to have his check cashed. By the time this is done, the attendant has serviced the car and informed the cashier the amount of the transaction and the customer is not delayed.

Heating oil customers often place orders while the attendant is filling the car tank with gasoline, and he relays it to the office immediately without interrupting service. It is common practice for the attendant to make appointments for lubrication or shop work in the same manner. First he contacts the office and states the nature of the work. The office relays it to the shop foreman who makes arrangements and replies to the office without any manual operation of the unit. The office relays this data back to the pump island and all arrangements are made in seconds; moving the car to the lubritorium or shop, clearing the driveways in the quickest possible time.

Station Details—The building is constructed of wood frame, insulated with fiber glass, interior walls are sheet rock and are painted; exterior is white stucco. The lubritorium has one lube bay with a pit of sufficient size to handle all truck work in the community. Another bay houses combination wash and motor tune-up facilities.

The heating system consists of suspended units for heating the garage and lubritorium, a vertical space saver unit for the office, two restrooms, stock and display room. All registers are in the ceiling excepting the restrooms which are equipped with high wall automatic registers.

Company says the ceiling registers in the display room eliminated all steam and frost on the windows.

The three-zone heating system works satisfactorily and cuts cost 40% compared with system used in the old station.
Cost of rebuilding the station was $16,000, company says, including new equipment for the lube pit, an investment that is paying dividends with increased business. Company has only one outlet.

Gasoline storage consists of one 5,000 and one 4,000-gal. underground tanks each for regular and premium.

Total heating oil storage is 58,000 gals. One overhead thank holds 10,000 gals. of range oil. One 8,000 gal. tanks holds No. 2 fuel oil and two other 20,000 gal. underground tanks hold range oil and No. 2 fuel. The latter are equipped with 150 g.p.m. pumps for faster loading than gravity. The overhead tank is used in emergency during times of power failure.

All heating oils are delivered to customers with three trucks while the supplier, Esso Standard, delivers all the products from its Portland water terminal to Morse company storage tanks, most of this being delivered at night after working hours. 

The company uses the degree-day system for making sure its customers do not run out of fuel oil.

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