Steam fire engine

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ All over America, in cities large and small, the exciting spectacle of the steam fire engine rumbling to the scene of a blaze became commonplace, but never so commonplace that it failed to thrill both young and old. ”

“ 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 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 ”

“ For many years manual engines were the only ones employed, and they came to be made of great size, requiring as many as 40 or 50 men to work them; but now they are superseded by power-driven engines, at least for all important services. The first practical steam fire-engine was made by John Braithwaite about 1829, but though it proved useful in various fires in London for several years after that date, it was objected to by the men of the fire brigade and its use was abandoned. A generation later, however, steam fire-engines began to come into vogue. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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 first steam fire-engine—an apparatus which to-day constitutes perhaps the most important feature of a city’s fire department—was invented and built by Ericsson in 1829. Previously, and as a matter of fact for years afterward, hand-operated engines, manned by crews of volunteer firemen, fought the fires which so frequently destroyed vast sections of the wood-constructed cities of those early days. It is not surprising that this valuable invention did not receive immediate recognition, for inventors rarely obtain such recognition from the people whom their inventions benefit. ”

“ 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 ancestry of the Ahrens engines can be traced all the way back to Moses Latta, who accomplished what the world’s mechanical geniuses had hitherto failed to do by devising a boiler which not only generated a lot of steam but in addition produced the steam quickly. Once this milestone had been passed, the road to widespread and successful usage of steam fire engines broadened, and progress became correspondingly rapid. ”

“ As the trend to steam fire engines grew to landslide proportions, manufacturers of the new machines mushroomed all over the eastern United States. Almost every heavy machine shop which had had any experience with steam brought out an engine. Some erstwhile manufacturers never built more than one machine; others produced hundreds. Moses Latta, the pioneer in the field, enjoyed only a few brief years with minor competition, eventually selling his business. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Nevertheless, as the transportation of passengers on railroads is found to be attended with less liability to loss of life or injury of person than their carriage by stage-coach, it will be found, very probably, that the general use of steam in transporting freight on common roads may be attended with less risk to life or property than to-day attends the use of horse-power.
The Steam Fire-Engine is still another form of portable engine. It is also one of the latest of all applications of steam-power. The steam fire-engine is peculiarly an American production. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Although the steam fire engine brought great gains in fire-fighting efficiency and ended many of the evils inherent in the old volunteer system, it was not a panacea for all the fire-fighting problems of the time. In most cities, politicians recognized a good thing when they saw it, and were quick to take an interest in the newly created paid departments. ”

“ By using a small boiler crowded with heating-surface, very carefully proportioned and arranged, and with small water-spaces; by adopting steel for running-gear and working parts wherever possible; by working at high piston-speed and with high steam-pressure; by selecting fuel with extreme care—by all these expedients, the steam fire-engine has been brought, in this country, to a state of efficiency far superior to anything seen elsewhere. Steam is raised with wonderful promptness, even from cold water, and water is thrown from the nozzle at the end of long lines of hose to great distances. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In 1859 the same firm constructed two land steam fire-engines, which they offered to the London Fire Brigade for hire or purchase, and in the following year (1860) the Fire Brigade took one on hire for one year. This experiment proved so successful, that in 1861 the committee purchased, from Shand and Mason, the fourth steam engine of their construction. This, with one of the two made in 1859, were the only land steam engines that were at work at the Great Tooley Street Fire of 1861. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We hold that a steam fire engine should be of such nature as to be brought into requisition in as short a space of time as is necessary to get the machine on the ground, and the hose laid and ready to work: that is, supposing the fire to be within one square of the place where the steamer is located. The object in locating a machine at any point is to protect that immediate vicinity ”

“ Such a marked improvement as a steam fire engine, however, could not long remain unadopted by the progressive people of this country, even though their protectors, the volunteer firemen, insisted that hand power was the only means that should be used. In 1852 Messrs. Latta & Shawk, of Cincinnati, placed a steam boiler and cylinder in connection with the pumps of a hand engine belonging to the Cincinnati department and mounted the whole contrivance on wheels and frame. ”

“ He followed it up with a steam fire-engine that astonished London at the burning of the Argyle188 Rooms, in 1829, when for the first time, as one of the local papers remarked, "fire was extinguished by the mechanical power of fire." Another engine, of larger power, built for the King of Prussia, soon after rendered excellent service in Berlin, and a third was built for Liverpool in 1830. Ten years afterward the Mechanics' Institute of New York awarded a gold medal to Ericsson as a prize for the best plan of a steam-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. ”

“ The earliest aerial ladders were made of wood and mounted on horse-drawn trucks, with ladders being raised or lowered by hand-operated cranks. Today’s aerial ladder truck, as shown above, embodies tremendous improvements in safety and efficiency.
The modern pumper pictured above has an output of 1,500 gallons of water per minute, more than four times the pumping capacity of the Carillon Park steam fire engine. In addition, it carries 1,600 feet of hose.
A 275-horsepower motor provides instant and dependable power. ”

“ 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. ”