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Old Type set Marine Oils / Vacuum Oil Company New York

Took delivery of an interesting Old Type set today.

This set was issued or gifted (?) by Marine Oils / Vacuum Oil Company out of New York and eventually ended up in the Netherlands. I. Also have a clue how that may have happend. Around WW2 the Socony-vacuum company whas in business in Dutch East Indies.

Did some research myself, but I'm also interested of what the B&B members can tell or ad to the story. Are there more know sets like these, or maybe somebody has a connection to this company or what became of it?

Note: I'm not an historian. Al info is supported by a link to the source of the information.


Gargoyle
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Marine Oils
A grade for each type of service




Socony-Vacuum Oil Company in HK from 1896
Same logo that's barely visible on the case.

Vacuum Oil Company - Wikipedia

Vacuum Oil Company was an American oil company known for their Gargoyle 600-W Steam Cylinder Oil. Vacuum Oil merged with Standard Oil Co of New York, commonly known as Socony Oil to form Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, and is now a part of ExxonMobil.

History Edit

Vacuum Oil was founded in 1866 by Matthew Ewing and Hiram Bond Everest, of Rochester, New York. The lubrication oil was an accidental discovery while attempting to distill kerosene. Everest noted the residue from the extraction was suitable as a lubricant. Soon after, the product became popular for use by steam engines and the internal-combustion engines. Ewing sold his interest to Everest, who carried on the company.[1] Vacuum was bought by Standard Oil in 1879. It originated the Mobil trademark in 1899 (as "Mobilgas;" "Mobiloil" came later). When Standard Oil was broken up in 1911 due to the Sherman Antitrust Act, Vacuum became an independent company again.[2]


Socony-Vacuum station in the Dutch East Indies.
Vacuum Oil and Standard Oil of New York (Socony) merged in 1931, after the government gave up attempts to prevent it. At the time, the newly combined company made Socony-Vacuum Corp. the 3rd largest oil company, worldwide. Everest remained with the firm, and was given a salaried job as president.[3]

During World War II, the Tschechowitz I & II subcamps of Auschwitz in Czechowice-Dziedzice provided forced labor for Vacuum Oil Company facilities in Poland which were captured and operated by Nazi Germany.[4]

In 1955, the company became Socony Mobil Oil Company. In 1963 it was renamed Mobilgas then just Mobil.

SOCONY- History in short

The house flag of Socony Mobil Co. Inc, New York. A white swallow-tailed burgee with blue borders. There is a red, winged horse with a red stripe below in the centre. The flag is made of nylon with a cotton hoist and is machine sewn.
A terylene halyard is attached. The Pegasus flag was introduced shortly after the merger between Mobil and Standard Oil in 1931.

Socony Mobil’s history dates from the late 19th century as part of American John D. Rockefeller’s oil giant Standard Oil.
Rockefeller, along with Maurice B. Clark and Englishman Samuel Andrews, founded Standard Oil in 1870 in Cleveland, Ohio after investing in an oil refinery in 1863. Following a trust agreement in 1882, the Standard Oil Company of New York was created, the predecessor to Socony-Vacuum and later the Mobil Corporation. In the next decades, the company spread its business to Europe and Asia, and employed the use of large ‘kerosene clippers’ to transport their material overseas. 1911 marked the end of the giant consortium of 34 Standard Oil companies after an antitrust suit forced Rockefeller’s conglomerate to split. Standard Oil Company of New York was now a spin-off company of the original Standard Oil, and became known as Socony (an acronym for its full name). In 1931, further changes were implemented when Socony merged with the Vacuum Oil Company to become Socony-Vacuum. Vacuum Oil Company was already selling a product called Mobilgas, and Socony’s Pegasus logo was adopted (a remnant of an old Standard Oil logo); these were the origins of the Mobil Oil Company’s name and logo. As with many other major oil companies at the time, Socony-Vacuum’s tankers were recruited to transport oil for the Allies during World War II. This caused a temporary
drop in business and expansion overseas. Socony-Vacuum employed special transport companies in Hong Kong and Canada during the war to oversee the transport of their American products through war zones and dangerous ports.
After World War II, Socony-Vacuum continued expansion and mergers with other oil companies in the United States and overseas. In 1955, the company dropped the 'Vacuum' and became Socony-Mobil, then finally just Mobil Oil in 1966. In 1960 the Mobil Chemical Company was formed as part of Mobil Oil, producing synthetic lubricants and other organic chemicals. After surviving the petrol crisis in the 1970’s and subsequent recovery in the 1980’s, Mobil Oil merged with Exxon Corporation in 1998 to form the ExxonMobil, currently the largest integrated oil and gas company in the world.

Mobiloil (American Steam tanker) - Ships hit by German U-boats during WWII - uboat.net

Name Mobiloil
Type: Steam tanker
Tonnage 9,925 tons
Completed 1937 - Sun Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co, Chester PA
Owner Socony-Vacuum Oil Co Inc, New York
Homeport New York
Date of attack 29 Apr 1942 Nationality: American

Fate Sunk by U-108 (Klaus Scholtz)
Position 25° 35'N, 66° 18'W - Grid DO 1389
Complement 52 (0 dead and 52 survivors).
Convoy
Route New York (16 Apr) - Norfolk - Caripito, Venezuela
Cargo Water ballast
History Completed in January 1937
Notes on event
At 08.57 hours on 29 April 1942 the unescorted Mobiloil (Master Ernest V. Farrow) was torpedoed by U-108 about 350 miles northeast of Turks Island. The U-boat had spotted the tanker at 19.50 hours the day before, but she was steaming at 14 knots and it took about 13 hours to get into a favourable attack position. At 04.12 hours, a first torpedo already missed, before the U-boat fired a spread of two torpedoes at 08.57 hours and hit the tanker with one between the #1 and #2 tanks on the starboard side and blew a large hole in the bow. Then U-108 surfaced and began shelling the tanker from a distance of 2000 metres with all weapons, while Mobiloil was firing 12 rounds from the 4in stern gun (the ship was also armed with two .50cal and two .30cal guns). After three hits on the tanker, Scholtz had to cease fire after 50 minutes because the target could not be seen properly, the 20mm AA gun jammed and the gun sight of the 37mm AA gun was defect. In the meantime the tanker swung around to show the stern towards the U-boat, shifted some ballast and set course toward Bermuda.

At 11.12 and 11.13 hours, U-108 fired two torpedoes, the first missed and the second struck on the starboard side of the #4 tank, destroying a lifeboat, opening the pumproom, wrecking the living quarters and the gyro compass, but the tanker was able to continue. The sixth torpedo fired at 16.45 hours hit between #7 and #8 tanks on the port side, stopping the engines and caused flooding, this caused the ship to break in two in the middle. The eight officers, 33 crewmen, two workaways and nine armed guards abandoned ship in three lifeboats just before the ship sank at 17.12 hours in 26°10N/66°15W with bow and stern pointing skyward. All survivors were picked up about 86 hours after the attack by USS PC-490 after being spotted and circled twice by aircraft and landed on 4 May at San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The master was later convicted of violating convoy routing orders, because he had been ordered to await a convoy off Norfolk, but the vessels did not arrive at the appointed hour, so he proceeded alone.

Never have thought that buying a razor got me reading about taking down tankers in WW2 by German Uboats.
 
R

romsitsa

Nice one, also the case looks to be a custom order at least this is the first time I see this orange brown color. Love when the small pieces of history fall together. Gillette sets were often used as company gifts, the weirdest one was an Old type with the Gibbs (most likely the shaving soap) logo engraved into the cap.

Adam
 
Nice one, also the case looks to be a custom order at least this is the first time I see this orange brown color. Love when the small pieces of history fall together. Gillette sets were often used as company gifts, the weirdest one was an Old type with the Gibbs (most likely the shaving soap) logo engraved into the cap.

Adam
The ones with the engraved (etched?) caps turn up from time to time on eBay. I know that I've seen them from Chrysler, a couple of hotels, and a farm implement company.

Then, of course, there is the "Use Ivory Soap" OT.
 
R

romsitsa

These early machine engraving looks so nice with the thin horizontal lines. Back to topic, another interesting feature is the nickel plating vs. gold lettering on the case.

Adam
 
Today an Vintage Gillette safety razors facebookmember posted pics of an simulair set.

233C1993-13A6-4B90-B976-B0B1ECFFB32D.jpeg
8A2454E6-857E-429E-9594-4FF400A90945.jpeg
7BF37DE7-DF25-44E5-B684-D39C9FBA5FA1.jpeg
 
Nice looking piece! It's coo how more photos surfaced in this thread.

Old types are great shavers. I have a Gillette, and a rare knockoff from Wade and Butcher.
 
Hi,

I don't see the history as to why they had the name Vacuum. That was how they refined their crude. Under a Vacuum. In the old distilling days, this was a more advanced way to do it.

Stan
 
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