Research Needed - Mobilubricant

[Matt Revington]

This can, although round, is interesting, unlike all of the American-made Mobil containers that I have found so far this one has a side with the just the product name in large print like the can AE is carrying in the photo and with Vacuum Oil Company, Made in Australia on the lower part of the label which maybe what the smaller print on AE's can says.  The American cans I  have seen either have the logos or descriptive printing on all sides. The photo comes from this link that shows it has the pegasus label on the other side, https://picclick.com.au/Vacuum-Oil-Co-Mobilgrease-1-Lb-Pound-Vintage-232272273377.html .  There may have been another word ( i.e. Grease) underneath Vacuum originally, hard to tell.
I wonder if these cans are from an industrial source rather than retail, the retail cans have lots of extra info while industrial ( ie airport) are more plain

[Jerry Germann]

Does anybody in this forum belong to the forum on oldgas.com?  It's a forum for collectors of old gas station memorabilia.  The photo of the mobilubricant can could be posted there for help in identifying it and its measurements.  They have a gallery with quite a few cans, but I don't see anything that matches.

Joy

I decided to join that Forum, and hope one or more of the members can help out.

Also , regarding the product Lubriplate, mentioned in the Luke field inventory as item 55...a 5lb pail....I noticed in a previous photo I posted concerning a map case, that there are TWO cans of lubriplate in the items Earhart is looking at. It seems in the story about her having trouble with galling of her propeller hubs upon landing in Hawaii, and that there was a special grease aboard may be proved by that image. Only one 5lb pail was inventoried after the crash..did the rest go into the almost dry propeller hubs before the attempted takeoff from Luke? It is unfortunate we don't see the two differing sizes of Mobilgrease NO 2 and or that other can we seek....but as mentioned , that can may have been carried for a very short duration of the trip.

[Ted G Campbell]

To all the wizards out there:  Is it possible to determine a length ratio between the can length and the length of the "M" in "Mobil" in the photo?  Can we then compare the length ratio between the two "arm bones" in the records with the forgoing can ratio in order to see if there is a correlation?

Ted Campbell

[Ric Gillespie]

Jeff Glickman has completed his scaling of the photo.  Report attached. Dr. Jantz will now be able to determine the distance in inches between any two points on AE's arm.
In his report, Jeff refers to the can as an "oil can" but he is, of course, talking about the Mobilubricant can.

Ric