Anti-trust, Monopolies, & Gargoyles?

Dinosaurs may have made gas & oil, but it took finding a gargoyle to make the business of petroleum products interesting.

Mobiloil Print BlockIn listing on eBay, we often have to do a little research as to what it is exactly that we have on our hands to sell. This time, it was vintage printer's block, with Mobiloil on it

We are all familiar with the Mobil Pegasus (well at least those of a certain age anyway), but did you know they have also used a Gargoyle? I didn't! Heck, I didn't even know for sure that Mobiloil was Mobil Oil - until I did a little search via Google.

(Gas & oil are the result of dead dinosaurs, right? So it would make sense for companies to use dinosaurs in their logos & corporate branding, but what's the deal with Mobil & their mythical beasts?)

I also didn't know that Mobil originated with Standard Oil. This is where it leads to the issue of monopolies.

In the late 19th Century, the booming US economy entered a period of rapid consolidation known as Trusts. And no trust was bigger than Standard Oil (owned by John D. Rockefeller).

In 1911 Standard Oil was taken to task, and to court, for its monopoly status. This decision broke up Rockefeller's company into six main entities, including Standard Oil of New Jersey (Esso, now Exxon), Standard Oil of New York (Socony, now Mobil), Standard Oil of Ohio, and Standard Oil of Indiana (now Amoco, part of BP) and Standard Oil of California (now Chevron). (For more on this, read the BBC's article, here.)

In 1920 the Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony) registered Mobiloil at the U. S. patent office as a trademark, and it seems the Pegasus was in use right from Mobiloil's start. In 1931, Vacuum Oil Co merged with Socony - and the Pegasus logo was used by both by 1933. However, since the gargoyle logo used by Vacuum Oil Co. had a loyal following, it was used as well. (There were some signs & materials printed that used the Pegasus logo, with 'gargoyle' as the text - so it is all rather confusing!) By the early 1940's, it seems the gargoyle went bye-bye.

Then in 1966 the company became the Mobil Oil Corporation, and in 1999, it became ExxonMobil. And I think the Pegasus has now gone the way of the Gargoyle.

Before this, all I knew about monopolies was they were 'bad.' I remember the break up of 'Ma Bell,' and think of it everytime I need to deal with the cable company or Mircrosoft. And I knew that Rockerfeller was a rich oil guy, but had no idea his "net worth was equal to nearly 2.5% of the whole US economy, the equivalent of nearly $250bn in today's terms, or at least twice as much as Bill Gates."

And I never knew that Mobil Oil had used any mythical creature other than Pegasus.

Collecting leads to knowledge. It's not a rationalization, it's a reality.

Article by Pop_Tart


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