The nozzle of a gas pump must be made of some kind of alloy that will not allow it to spark upon striking the nozzle. Does anyone know what material the nozzle and pump are made of? Thanks.
Whatever it is, it appears to be the same alloy that the nozzle holder is made of as well as the material that the collar of the gas tank is made of.
it’s a dispenser. As I’ve said maybe once or twice, the pump’s in the underground tank. 
Peace,
mangeorge (Just won’t let up)
BTW; I know that I typed it, not said it. That’s different.
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- Gas pump nozzles are made of aluminum. - MC
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Hey, this is a perfect time for a true story about how the shape of the gas nozzle changed the urban landscape of California. I noticed these changes happening during the late 80s in Los Angeles, and I did extensive research and finally figured out the true story.
As many of you Californians know, there are these stupid “vapor recovery” collars around the gas nozzles. The CA legislature mandated these collars, and these nozzles can’t pump gas as fast as the old types. If I recall correctly, these new nozzles can only put out 6 gal per minute instead of something like 10 gal/min. When the law went into effect, the old style service station discovered that they could not pump gas fast enough to be profitable anymore. Most of these stations ripped out their 6 or 8 pumps and installed 10 or 15 self-serve pumps.
Standard Oil analyzed the situation and decided it was too expensive to retool all their company-owned corner service stations throughout southern CA and LA in particular. So they sold them all in one parcel. One greedy real estate robber-baron was poised to take over: Bob Hope. Yes, Bob Hope the comedian, owner of “La Mancha Development” which owns about half the valley, the largest single private landowner in LA County. He bought up ALL the Standard Oil stations in one parcel. And he proceeded to develop these corners across the city into one of the newest plagues on the city: strip malls. All across the city, I saw La Mancha Development signs popping up where Standard gas stations used to be, followed in mere weeks by cheaply constructed strip malls. The city never recovered from this blight of crowded, high-traffic areas every place you looked.
So there you have it. Here’s the sequence if you didn’t follow it:
- Gas pumps change to slower output.
- Gas stations can’t pump enough gas to be profitable.
- Stations retool for more pumps to make up for this, or go out of business.
- Standard Oil decides its too expensive to retool all their stations so they sell all of them to Bob Hope/La Mancha Development.
- Bob Hope turns all the former gas stations into cheezy strip malls, unleashing a new form of urban blight across the city.
It’s not the material that makes them spark free. They’re grounded by a mesh that’s imbedded in the hose.
mangeorge wrote:
At every station I’ve ever worked at the pumps were above the tank where they could be easily serviced or replaced. You’re quite right, though, the big boxes on the island that everyone refers to as pumps are really just calibrated flow controllers (dispensors). The pressure and flow are supplied from auxillery pumps.
How much of the volume of the pump (sorry, calibrated flow controller) is actually doing something, as opposed to just being an empty volume there for looks.
If the pumps in the US are the same as here, you will see a few circular rings, hanging loose around the hose and gravity being gravity, they lie at the lowest point. i.e. ground, where the add a secondary means of earthing.
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- I do remember that the hoses were wire - re-inforced but none of the couplings ever came off, so I’m not real sure the wire was used for that purpose. I don’t know that static electricity would be a real problem; I’ve never touched a car and gotten shocked under normal circumstances. - The gas pump nozzles are aluminum so that they won’t spark when dropped on the concrete pavement (I duno if concrete is required, but nowadays in the US it is common). Automobile gas tank necks are steel, but I don’t think it’s real easy to strike steel with aluminum and make sparks.
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- Not a lot. The cabinets are so large mainly to make it easy to work on the pumps without taking the cabinets completely apart.
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Ever notice the difference between the manner in which men and women put gas in their vehicles? Women put the gas in, then return the nozzle to the dispenser. Men tend to “shake” the nozzle before returning it… 
MC:
Static electricity is a huge problem. It’s a much more likely source of ignition than a concussion spark from dropping the nozzle. I’m electrostatically shocked quite often as I step out of my vehicle. Since cars ride on very effective insulators (tires), they tend to build up static electricity. This is why they make such a big deal about filling portable gas cans on the bed of a truck. You’re supposed to put it on the ground first.
Somebody did that here about a month ago! Burned the pump cabinet completely. They still haven’t replaced it.
When I was a kid, I used to work at a gas station (actually several). My boss had a rule. The customer was never allowed to fill gas cans - the attendant had to do it according to procedure. This wasn’t as big an issue back then - I don’t think self-serve had been invented yet. This rule was in effect because a plastic gas can exploded in someone’s face at another staion in the town. This is also one reason why some stations have a rule against plastic containers.
Someon from Colorado called in to Car Talk last Sunday, telling of an incident when she started to take her gas cap off at a gas station, and a pillar of flame shot up and scared the bejesus out of her and the onlookers. The best guess for the cause was static electricity discharging, or possibly or a spark from her jewelry hitting some metal.