Back in the 50’s, I used to take my parents car out and spend all my money on everything but gas. Sometimes I would be far away from home and with the gage sitting on empty, I would do this trick to get back home and park it. I don’t recall Dad not making it to nearest filling station the next morning!
Going futher back in time, before I was driving, they would hand pump gas up into a overhead calibrated glass container and then let it flow by gravity into your tank. You certainly drained the container and hose into your tank. I never heard what happened if your tank would not hold it all.
This practice should also be considered completely legal - even Bibical. Under Jewish law, Ruth was allowed to glean the fields after the harvest and I was only “gleaning” what was left in the hose. We have become to lazy to do it in modern times.