APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES. 



483 



is tolerably certain that it was never used. Bartholomew Wel- 

 dern also made two engines, neither of which would work. In 

 the same year, however, Thomas Lote made an engine that was 

 more successful. It was used in the New York department, and 

 known as number three. Considering the length of time between 

 1654 and 1737, in which no mention is made of home-made en- 

 gines, it seems still more doubtful if Mr. Jenks, of Lynn, did 

 make the first machine in this country, and undoubtedly priority 

 should be given to one of the several New-Yorkers just men- 

 tioned. 



Benjamin Franklin states in his autobiography that his read- 

 ing a paper on fire protection before a Philadelphia society gave 

 rise to the forming of " a company for the ready extinguishing of 

 fires, and mutual assistance in removing and securing of goods 

 when in danger." Besides the usual buckets, each member car- 

 ried a bag made of four yards of osnaburgs or wider linen, with a 

 running cord at the neck. These bags were used in safely trans- 

 porting valuables and small articles from burning buildings, and 



Fig. 3. Early Fire Fighting. (From a certificate issued to Seth Kneeland, New York 

 Volunteer Fire Department, November 13, 1789.) 



formed a primitive forerunner of the outfits of the protective 

 patrols of to-day. Franklin was a member of the company thus 

 started. 



Jacob Turk, who became the head of the New York depart- 

 ment in 1739, introduced the style of- leather hat that is worn by 

 firemen at the present day. Despite the countless changes that 

 have taken place in apparatus of all kinds, the fireman's hat 

 remains practically unchanged, and serves, as it always has, for a 

 distinguishing emblem to the profession. 



Massachusetts passed a law in 1744 empowering all towns to 

 choose fire wards. The wards were to have for a distinguishing 



