diff --git a/lib/geocoder/lookups/base.rb b/lib/geocoder/lookups/base.rb
index 2f5674955751812ee17fdc4b04089a2e1a6c0863..d39ab524ddaafb218ec79e1069bb18d8fd45d649 100644
--- a/lib/geocoder/lookups/base.rb
+++ b/lib/geocoder/lookups/base.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 require 'net/http'
 unless defined?(ActiveSupport::JSON)
   begin
+    require 'rubygems' # for Ruby 1.8
     require 'json'
   rescue LoadError
     raise LoadError, "Please install the 'json' or 'json_pure' gem to parse geocoder results."