Fire engine

“ The engineer of a steam fire engine in a well-respected company was a man of some standing, especially among the younger set. The American’s traditional love for machinery and for gadgets to make his work simpler found one of its most potent outlets in these glittering machines. A locomotive, its valve gear flashing as the engineer thundered past a Middle 19 West whistle stop, was a stirring sight at any time, but it could hardly compare with the glamor inherent in the old fire engine. ”

“ The development of fire-fighting machines cannot be claimed exclusively by recent generations. As early as the reign of the Ptolemies in Egypt, some 200 years before the Christian era, a hand-pump fire engine was constructed which was similar to those later used in the 19th Century. This first known fire engine was described by the Greek writer Heron, who reported that the machine operated through a pump and air-chamber mechanism which forced water out of a spout by means of compressed air. ”

“ Animal strength and endurance are not an indefinite quantity; while the fireman grudges even the few short moments which are occupied by the inspanning of the team. In many towns, therefore, we find the mechanically propelled fire engine coming into favour. The power for working the pumps is now given a second duty of turning the driving-wheels. A parallel can be found in the steam-engine used for threshing-machines, which once had to be towed by horses, but now travels of itself, dragging machine and other vehicles behind it. ”

“ England deserves the credit for invention of the steam fire engine, but to America goes the distinction of having perfected it. Nowhere was the steam fire engine more widely used than in the United States, with its preponderance of highly inflammable wooden buildings. Certainly nowhere else were the caretakers of the glittering engines so zealous in exhibiting their machines’ amazing qualities at every opportunity. ”

“ The one borrows its auxiliaries from iron, coal, fire and boiling water; the other employs only silk and gas, a thin cloth filled with a light wind. The engine, with its frightful shrieks, its noisy rattling, and its black puffs of smoke, runs upon inflexible rails, roars through the bowels of the earth, and dives into the darkness of tunnels, seeming as if seeking some evil genius who might have invented it; the balloon, without noise and without effort, leaves the earth, where the laws of gravity hold us, and mounts tranquilly up toward heaven. ”

“ Most of those who knew and admired the steam fire engine during its heyday have departed, and few of the machines themselves have escaped the final oblivion of the scrap heap. Those engines that have been preserved, however, attest to the craftsmanship of their makers. In symmetry of design, sound construction and elegant finish they constitute a classic example of fine American manufacture. ”

“ THE FIRE HORSES stand ready in their stalls, and at the sound of the alarm gong the stall chains are let down and each horse goes quickly to his place at the engine, and the big iron collars are clamped around their necks and off they go to the fire, with the engine, at break-neck speed.
THE AUTOMOBILE FIRE ENGINE can go to the fires very swiftly. Many times the saving of a few minutes by the firemen in reaching a fire means stopping the blaze before it becomes too great. ”

“ The fire engine is essentially an apparatus adapted to emergencies, and owing to the intermittent nature of the duty performed, it is quite likely, unless the proper precautions are observed, that its several parts, more especially its interior mechanism, will suffer more deterioration while standing idle than from actual service. ”

“ IMPROVED STEAM FIRE ENGINE.
The engine is constructed with wrought iron side frames, fore carriage and wheels, and steel axles, springs, etc. The tool box, coachman's seat, and other parts are of teak. It is provided with Messrs. Shand, Mason & Co.'s quick steaming boiler, in which 100 lb. pressure can be raised from cold water in from five to seven minutes, an extra large fire box for burning wood, with fire door at the back, feed pump, and injector, fresh water tank, coal bunker, and other fittings and arrangements for carrying the suction pipe. ”

“ It is essential that the machinery relied upon for fire protection should at all times be ready for instantaneous and effective service; this, because both life and vast property interests are at stake, hence of all machines made, the modern steam fire engine is produced with a niceness of finish and accuracy of fit equaled by no other, when size is considered; it approaches towards the perfection seen in the mechanism of a fine watch. ”

“ If the engineer wishes to increase the severity of the test, he throws a wet cloth over the top of the ventilating pipe, and so gets a slight pressure of smoke inside it.
THE GAS ENGINE. [1] By DUGALD CLERK.
In earlier days of mechanics, before the work of the great Scottish engineer, James Watt, the crude steam engines of the time were known as "fire engines," not in the sense in which we now apply the term to machines for the extinguishing of fires, but as indicating the source from which the power was derived, motive power engines deriving their vitality and strength from fire. ”

“ The little hand-fire-engine worked heroically, squirting a futile stream upon the flames for a while, and then turning its attention to the nearest houses in order to keep them drenched.
"Thank God the wind's in the right direction," muttered Zeb Smith, the storekeeper and magistrate. ”

“ Combination steam-gasoline fire engines bridged the gap between old-time steamers and present-day equipment. This Dayton engine depended upon an internal combustion engine for motive power, but used steam to drive its pumps.
There was one big advantage to gasoline mechanization, however, that could not be shouted down. Dependable as they were, the fire horses cost money. A few gallons of fuel, it became apparent, were much cheaper than the constant drain on the supply of hay and oats needed for the horses. ”

“ The carelessness of men, the cheap methods of building, and the introduction of new devices for heating houses, have alarmingly increased the liabilities to fires, and have led to a demand for better methods of extinguishing them, and lo, the engine appeared at call. Nor does the steam fire engine mark more than another step towards more effective machines. ”

“ The engine stands facing the door, and by the side of it the hose-carriage. The firemen’s helmets and coats are hung on these; and in the engine the materials for getting up the fire are laid at the bottom; and close by is a sort of tow-torch soaked in oil, which is lighted and thrown on the fire by the engineman when they start. So inflammable is the material laid in the engine-furnace that the fire is lighted instantaneously. Coming up through the floor, and connecting with two pipes at the rear of the engine, are two tubes from the steam-heater mentioned above. ”

“ By now, conversion to steam was taking place throughout the United States. The steam fire engine, often called a “bulljine,” could run for hours without tiring. It made its debut in cities large and small, and firehouses began to assume some of the aspects of livery barns, since the steamers were usually too heavy to be pulled by men. Hay and oats soon came to be as much a part of fire department supplies as hose and axes, although just as firemen had opposed steamers as an insult to their strength, so they opposed at first the use of horses to pull equipment 15 to the fires. ”

“ When an engine is large, it not only requires a considerable number of men to work it, but it is not easily supplied with water; and, above all, it cannot be moved about with that celerity on which, in a fire-engine establishment, everything depends. When the engine is brought into actual operation, the effect to be produced depends less on the quantity of water thrown than upon its being made actually to strike the burning materials, the force with which it does so, and the steadiness with which the engine is worked. ”

“ Its ordinary working complement of men was twenty-eight, and larger engines, upon the same general design, have since been made, to be worked by from forty-five to sixty men. The steam fire-engine has already, to a certain extent, superseded the brigade engine, but the latter is still likely, for some time at least, to be preferred for a large class of fires, both in London and in the provinces. ”

“ Fixed steam fire-engines are placed in manufactories and other places where the steam boilers are already in use, the steam from which is available both day and night for working the engine. The use of these fixed engines is of course limited to the premises where they are situated, but these they protect efficiently by means of an arrangement of fixed cast-iron pipes, with outlets for attaching flexible hose; and being without the boiler, carriage, axles, springs, &c., of the land steam fire-engine, the cost is very much reduced. ”

“ Lack of space forbids following, as could be done, the growth of the modern steam fire engine from these primitive beginnings to its present high point of excellence and widely extended use. Wherever civilized men are gathered into towns and cities there can be found this admirable mechanism affording protection to both life and property. ”

“ The glowing, incandescent mass of fire, which shines with a blinding light that rivals the sun’s rays, dazzles the eyes of the novice, who sees in the fire-box only a chaotic gleam; but the experienced fireman looks into the resplendent glare, and reads its needs or its perfections. The fire is maintained nearly level; but the coal is supplied so that the sides and corners are well filled, for there the liability to drawing air is most imminent. With this system closely followed, there is no difficulty experienced in keeping up a steady head of steam. ”

“ The English fire-engine is a small affair, much smaller than our steam fire-engines, having about one half the pumping capacity of the American engines; and nearly every one in London is a combined engine and hose-wagon,—the hose being carried in a box-like compartment on each side of the machine, just back of the driver's seat. ”

“ We claim to be the original and first projectors of the first successful steam fire engine in the world's history. There have been many attempts at making a machine of such construction as would answer to extinguish fires ”

“ And in addition to steam fire-engines, aërial ladder-trucks, and hose-wagons—the latter very much of the same type as those used in this country—there are a great many automobile fire-engines in service, and quite a few of the cascrnes, or stations, are equipped entirely with motor-driven apparatus. There are also several electric fire-engines in use, practical-looking affairs,
A Paris auto fire-engine. ”

“ The city or town which wanted to replace its old hand-pump engines and modernize its fire-fighting facilities had a wide choice in steam fire engines. If funds were low and the needs modest, an engine could be purchased for as little as $800. One such economy engine, built by the Knowles Steam Pump Works at Warren, Massachusetts, was as plain and homely as it could be ”

“ The number of appliances and special devices used on and about a steam fire engine is not large, as it is the aim of both designers and builders to simplify the machine as much as possible without diminishing its efficiency. ”

“ No matter how hard the storm blew, with sharp forked lightnings, with muttering thunders, and the pitiless, driving rain, Old Steve's engine, which from its belching smoke and eating fire seemed the demon of the storm, came in safe, and the old man, whose eye never faltered, whose vigil never relaxed, got off from his engine, and after seeing it safely housed, went to his home, not to dream of the terrors and miseries of collisions, of the shrieks and groans of victims whom his engine had trodden down and crushed with tread as resistless as the rush of mountain torrents. ”

“ The engine strength lies in pins that couple, and joints that unite all its wonderful parts. When the fire is started that makes the steam, the fireman builds it with small sticks and pieces of wood and spends his time shovelling little coals out of the tender. ”

“ Motors are superseding horses, even here; and the horses that remain cannot take the fire-engine at more than a funereal pace. If a motor car or lorry towed it, there would probably be an upset in coming down steep lanes; and a motor fire-engine is a costly thing to buy. ”

“ The city of New York has 40 steam fire-engines. One engine to every 10,000 inhabitants is a proper proportion.
Fig. 121.—The Amoskeag Engine. Section.
In the standard steam fire-engine (Fig. 120) reciprocating engines and pumps are adopted, as seen in section in Fig. 121, in which A is the furnace, and B the set of closely-set vertical fire-tubes in the boiler. C is the combustion-chamber, D the smoke-pipe, and R the steam-space. E is the steam-cylinder, and F the pump, which is seen to be double-acting. ”

“ It is calculated by actual operations that one gallon of the chemical charge in an exterminator will do as much good as twenty-five gallons of water.
Passing to the highest type of mechanical methods now in use, we have to consider a more complete but wonderful machine, the steam fire-engine. Within the lifetime of a young man such an invention was unknown to the bulk of people, and had not come into general adoption; in its place were parish hand-engines, and a few kept up by the Fire Insurance Companies of London. ”

“ At length the fire-engine was got to work; lengths of leather hose were stretched down to the burning hold; buckets were rapidly passed from hand to hand; and the splashing of water was followed by the hissing of the flames. ”