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Okay trivia buffs, what year did Packard introduce the tank whistle in their cars and when did it disappear? Was it common in other makes of automobile?

No, I don't have the answers so I can't check your work. It's on the honor system ;)

Cannot answer as to when it first appeared but this bulletin would indicate it was eliminated with or at least very early in the 24th series 1951 production.

I honestly hadn't heard of such a thing until now.

I think the answer to the first part is here:

packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=2729

I know my pewar cars didn’t have it but my 1948 Henney Landaulet did. All my 1951s had it but none of my 1952s did which was expected as it was eliminated for the 1952 and later model years except for the Henneys which used a modified version of the 1948-1950 tank

Back when there were full service stations, it was always fun to watch the young people’s expressions when the whistle started. They usually thought that something was wrong with the nozzle!

My 1948 Station Sedan has the whistle. I had no idea this existed until I filled it with fuel for the very first time yesterday.

It looks like the whistle was introduced on the Clipper models in 1941.
It is mentioned in the 1942 Clipper owners manual and the part number for the 1941 Clipper fuel tank is the same as the 17 gallon tanks used in 1942

So the belief is the whistle was a Packard exclusive feature that began with the '41 Clipper and ended after the '51's -- a ten year span interrupted by the war.

That makes them very unique.

My father happens to have a '42 Senior Packard, no whistle.

Per a quick online search the automatic shut-off gasoline pump first appeared in 1939 but was rather crude to begin with. I'm sure it took many years afterwards for automatic shut-off to become commonplace in the field. I suppose the transitional period could have been particularly confusing as you may not know if it was or wasn't, but back then stations almost always had attendants and were not self-serve, for good reason.

I don't remember mention of it being on any other cars with reviews or test reports of the time so very possibly a Packard exclusive.

According to the service bulletin referenced in post #2 cars shipped from the factory after Nov 20, 1950 did not have the whistle nor did any service replacement tanks already in the warehouse available for shipment after that date. I would take that to mean that it was eliminated very early in 51 production so those 51s that did have it must have been in cars shipped as initial zone and dealer stock and actually sold later in the year.

One of my 1951s and my 1952 that had the whistle were both sold in September 1951 but those were Henney-Packards which used a variation of the 1950 type tank. I'm afraid I don't know the dates of my other 1951 and 1952 passenger cars but the 1951 which was a 300 did have the whistle.