I know there is a large knowledge base on here and I'm hoping someone will have some information about these things. I bought an oil "lubester" yesterday to refinish for my garage. One turn of the handle(lock to lock) would dispense 1 quart of oil. They would have been in early service stations and used with "glass" quart jars. The tank holds 30 gallons of oil.

I'm finding very little information about them online. The info I do find is very generic. From what I can find, they started being used in the early 1900's. 1920's for sure but earlier then that? No mention of when they stopped being used regularly.(40's? 50's? later?)) Did a person have to hold the glass jar while dispensing oil or did the jar top hook into the dispenser? The top has an odd shape that looks like a jar might attach to it. The drain tube that swings out of the way has a curved triangular piece welded onto it that looks like it might rest on the side of a jar. I'm surprised there isn't more information online about these. Even Facebook is fairly scarce.

I think I got a good deal on this one. There is no wording on it anywhere that I can see and no remnants of a sticker or logo anywhere. Doing a google picture search it might be an old Philips 66 dispenser. Without anything concrete to give me a clue as to what it was originally, I can refinish it however I want. One thing is for sure though. When it gets stripped, I'll be wearing a respirator. I'm sure that paint is full of lead.

tI used one of those in the late 50s early 60s working at a small station. The jar had a tall cone screw on top that the narrow end fit onto the dispenser nozzle and the triangle piece fit the side of the jar to help align it. The jar bottom sat flat on the circle part of the dispenser. A quart of that bulk oil cost 25 cents. We would drain the cans of regular oil we sold into it because there was always a little oil left.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/235123195403?

a variation of that pump is still in use today, attached to 55 gallon barrels of "xxxx", and each revolution of the handle dispenses one quart.
they still look very similar to the original in the picture.

Thanks "stumpy", that's more info than I've found searching online. I've seen those glass bottles but I didn't know they were tall enough to sit on the tank while being filled.

"moparx" when I worked in a small shop in the mid/late 90s, we used a pump inserted in the 55 gallon drums but I don't remember it being metered like that. We used a metal 5 quart measuring can and pumped the handle until it was filled up.

Those are cool! I have seen restorations where some have cut a large opening in the front panel, and then made shelves on the inside to display oil cans or other gas/oil related collectibles. If you want to get heavily into this stuff, start with oldgas.com You'll find information there as well as places to buy items such as decals etc for the restoration. Enjoy!

Never used them,I've noticed restored ones showing up on Mecum auctions and they look cool!

I worked for more than one service station in SO CA in the late 1950s and early to mid 1960 that had those containers, usually five or six of them full of different oils and other lubes.
I'm not sure when they started to be discontinued, each lube bay would usually have one air powered grease gun and rear end gear oil dispenser with a resettable dial on the gear oil gun for charging the customers for how much gear oil we would use to bring their rear ends up to the full level after each use I think those pumps were hook up to either a 30 gallon or 55 gallon barrels stored in the back rooms
For the life of me I can't remember ever seeing anyone refill those oil containers in the lube bays

Worked in a couple of stations that did the same
To the OP, Try googling 1930's motor oil dispenser or Vintage motor oil dispenser, a few different mfg's names show up

I worked at a Sinclair station until 1969 and a Shell in 1970 and we sold bulk oil like that daily.