While trying to work on a case study, I came upon this article.

In a nutshell, it says that a lot of old U.S. gas pumps with analog gas price displays only go up to a maximum of $3.99 per gallon. o_O

Some guy remarks (wistfully), "I remember when I used to get three gallons for a dollar," said Bergeron. "The pumps couldn't handle $2 back then."
Kozikowski said he remembers when gas went to $2 per gallon and said he has the old pumps to prove it.

This is like the Y2k bug, but for gas pumps. My question is, why would you build anything like this with such narrow-minded assumptions towards the future? The cost savings of excluding a few more digits can't be THAT high.

happydud astutely countered that a lot of the pumps they were talking about are REALLY old. like "gas was 50 cents" old. the concept of it ever hitting $4 was probably unimaginable.

I replied, Gas hit an a relatively historic low in the nineties, though...But happydud noted that this was after factoring in inflation. In 1990's dollars, it was still in the $1-2 range.

I asked, And what about oil price shocks of the late 70's early 80's?

<@happydud> inflation.
<@happydud> it was a few dollars

<@happydud> but those few dollars were WORTH a lot more
<@happydud> so $2/gallon
<+Gris`exam> The Carter-era stuff that gave us things like lower speed limits >_<
<@happydud> was the equivilent of today's 4 and $5
<+Gris`exam> Ah, right right
<@happydud> so it's a combination of the price spiraling out of control
<+Gris`exam> But if I were a gas pump maker, I would see the writing on the wall
<@happydud> AND inflation
<@happydud> 50 years ago?
<@happydud> when a gallon of gas was 25 cents?
<+Gris`exam> And realize that Reagan taking us off the gold standard and...
<+Gris`exam> Ok, fine. Free Silver!
<+Gris`exam> Remember THAT?! If Free Silver or somesuch populist thang were implemented in American economic policy, inflation very well might have risen back in "the good old days" as well.
<+Gris`exam> I'm just saying that there was a lack of foresight. Just because gas is 50 cents doesn't mean that it's inconceivable that a pump that was "built to last" like many 50's-era products before obsolecence-by-design could have to handle gas of a price higher than $2.99
<+Gris`exam> Or $3.99 after that.
<+Gris`exam> Hell, make it go to $50.00 per gallon or something and encourage the customers when they see a big fat zero at the start of their price (e.g. $00.50 / gal)

"Gas is $3.54 here" Anovis chimed in, in an attempt to provide helpful illustration?

Granted, by my argument, one could take it to absurd lengths and say why not put infinite digits then because who knows how high the price of gas could go in the future, but seriously, the price increasing 10x over the course of 50 years isn't entirely unreasonable. I mean, as an economist in the 50's you could look to examples like pre-Nazi Germany's hyperinflation crisis.

So what are your thoughts on the should-have or shouldn't-haves of 1950's-era gas pump designers and economic foresight? Is their lack of foresight excusable because they lived in a "golden era" we gild because everyone's too old to remember it properly?

Also, discuss other engineering-related flaws/blunders for which a lack of foresight is responsible.

I think virtualy everything designed & built in the last hundred years has some amount of error due to lack of foresight.
Supposidly there was a time when everyone thought 10mph was the fastest any car/train/vehicle would be able to go.

Almost everything is built by the lowest bidder. They have to cut every possible corner to make their services affordable. Often times that means cutting out foresight.

Also, the limitation of the gas signs doesn't really mean anything. They'll go up on the sign and paint the numbers on it they have to.
I've seen signs that can't technicaly go higher than 1.99 display $3 prices. So really there is no bug, just means someone will have to put in a little more work (probably someone who won't get payed any extra to do it).

Our gas prices are measured in cents per litre. Pretty much all gas stations built earlier than 5 or 10 years ago have signs that can only show **.* prices, meaning the highest is 99.9 cents. Now that prices of $1.259/litre are the norm, they do all sorts of stuff to show the price. Some will just put 25.9 and expect people to know that it's really 125.9. Others will put 125 and leave off the last digit. Some just have a 1 painted in front of the price.

When I was on a road trip I stopped at a service station with really old pumps. It had mechanical buttons that you could press marked $5, $10, $15, $20, and "fill". Made me laugh, $20 is about the minimum I put in now, and it's gone in a couple of days.

Also remember that these are analog gas pumps with actual gears driving the displays. That means it'll become increasingly difficult to physically accommodate larger and larger numbers, hence the limit.

I knew they were analog digits, but I didn't take into account the additional mechanical complexity accruing from further digits. Good point, Emon. Would 9.99 really be that inconvenient to engineer, though? Come ON, 1950's people!

I saw gas and I'm at work/on the phone.

Now who's being shortsighted??? 14.34 a gallon, here we come.

Gas pumps with 4 digit readouts can only go up to $99.99 a gallon.

WE BETTER GET ON THAT **** AND FIX IT LIKE NOW!

Our railway system uses crappy, small gauge rails that were actually proven to be inferior to Brunel's wide gauge tracks but because back then Stephenson had laid so much of it already, the crap narrow gauge became the industry standard. So we have bumpier trains that cannot move as fast round corners because some guy in the 1800s got their first with the bad idea.

Also transport designers of all kinds who cram as many seats in as possible and use old biometric data to size seat spaces. We're getting taller each generation and you're already screwing over the 5-10% of your potential custom and that percentage will only increase in years to come; making your design obsolete even sooner

If we want to talk about engineering blunders I believe the Ford Pinto needs a special mention for its highly flammable nature after low energy rear impacts.

How about an mp3 player that's almost impossible to re-flash after you use the built-in format feature because you can't delete corrupted files?

More like because of fat people we need to include more space because who likes being wedged up against some sweaty fat guy that wheezes amirite?

I saw a little story on the news about this. One station with these old pumps was selling gas by the 1/2 gallon to accomodate.

This is exactly the reason. They can update the older pumps to $4.99, as they have done to $2.99 and $3.99. Except, the fact that the gears get worn out a lot faster, since they have to rotate more to accommodate the steeper price. So instead of turning once for every gallon, a gear will have to turn twice. Plus, not many companies make parts for older pumps.

I smell an opportunity, gammasts! Let's go into business.

1. Make replacement gas pump gears.
2. ???
3. Profit!