IRVING OIL Collection

"More Miles"  "More Smiles"

       INTRODUCTION:

       This chapter in  "Bud's World" was designed to provide petroleum collectors with a basic understanding of the
      IRVING OIL CO. and their various products.  It is not intended to be an authoritative reference guide and the
       writer strongly urges you to check the corporations website for information you are seeking.
 

                                                                                THE BEGINNING

It was 1924 when young 25 year old K.C. (Kenneth Colin) Irving opened the first garage and service station in Bouctouche, New Brunswick.  It was also the year that K.C. opened a Ford dealership in Saint John, N.B. and established Irving Oil Limited.  Using $2,000 of his own and borrowed money, K.C. established a small refinery and made arrangements for his first shipment of oil from the Charles Noble & Co. of Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Building on the belief that ' Service means everything' Irving Oil quickly established a strong presence throughout Canada's Atlantic provinces.  K.C. sensed that the automobile industry was about to grow and he was proven right.  By 1929 cars became affordable, the gasoline output increased measureably and the road network expanded.  Even the misery associated with the stock crash proved to be nothing more then another challenge to Ken Irving who realized, like other astute empire builders that depressions are great times to purchase new assets.  He continued to expand and within two decades his corporation controlled more than a third of the  Maritime oil business.  His name and company logo were well on their way to becomming legenday.

       EARLY PRODUCTS:

       'Primrose' was the name of Irving Oil's first gasoline while 'Velco' has been identified as their first motor oil.
       It would seem however that the 'IOKA', 'Superior' and 'Penn-Air' brands were produced prior to Velco.
 

IOKA What does it mean?        Through the kindness of Victor Irving I have         finally learned the true meaning of the  word         "IOKA" .  For years I had assumed, as so many         collectors  do, that the "I" and "O" stood for         IRVING OIL.  I  was wrong.  My assumption that         the "K" stood for Kenneth and my thoughts        concerning the "A" were also very incorrect.  As        you will see from Victor's memo the "I" does stand        for Irving but who would have guessed that the         "OKA" stands for " OKlahom A.  Thank you Victor

Courtesy of Norm Pennie Superior & PENN-AIR brand motor oils                                Courtesy of Norm Pennie

Penn-Lube Motor Oil rack

VELCO Motor Oil Penn-Lube Motor Oil

IOKA Motor Oil rack

VELCO Motor Oil rack Photo Courtesy of Wes Hague

Photo courtesy of Norm Pennie

IOKA Cup Grease

Photo courtesy of Wes Haque

                                    

IOKA & VELCO Motor Oil cans
 (Early products of the Irving Oil Co.)  

Attractive Irving quart oil cans.
 

Five different Superior green cans were produced.  The last one (without a price) was made of composite paper.



Note the words "Gas" & "Oil" have been deleted from the original logo.



IRVING Outboard, Chain, A.T.F. & Fuel Oils.



IRVING Oil - Anti Freeze

IOKA cans featured wonderful and very colorful graphics.   VELCO cans were less      graphic but very colorful.      They featured the IRVING     slogan -  "More Miles More Smiles"

5 GALLON CANS

The IRVING OIL company produced a wide variety of colorful travel-guides and road maps.  I hope to learn more about these guides and will update this feature as I do.

IRVING OIL produced a series of license plate attachments and porcelain signs that highlighted the names of different cities, towns and geographical areas throughout Atlantic Canada.