486 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



In 1774 each engine in Salem there were then three was 

 furnished with a framed canvas screen in three or four leaves, 

 eight feet high. The canvas was kept wet by the use of long- 

 handled swabs, and the screens are said to have been of great 

 service in preventing the spread of fire. Screens of this kind 

 were used in Salem and the adjoining towns until a very late day 

 but they were evidently local in their character, for the records 

 of the departments in other parts of the country do not mention 

 anything of like nature. 



At the close of the Revolutionary War in 1782 the manu- 

 facture of fire engines that had been established in Philadelphia 

 took a decided start, and soon became such a distinctive feature 

 among the industries of that town that it added greatly to its 

 notoriety. Boston also for some time took a prominent part in 

 this industry. In 1792 the firm of Hunneman & Company, 

 manufacturers of hand fire engines, was established. This firm 

 continued to make hand fire engines until the introduction of 

 steamers threatened to ruin its business, and to save itself it 

 embraced the manufacture of steam fire engines. After continu- 

 ing to bear the name of Hunneman for almost a century it passed 

 into different hands and the firm is still in existence. As far as 

 can be ascertained, this is the oldest concern of the kind in this 

 country and perhaps in the world. 



When Hunneman & Company first established their works 

 the New York authorities decided to make their own engines, 

 and did so to some extent, but also continued to buy elsewhere, 

 the records showing that one was purchased from Philadelphia 

 in 1798. The Philadelphia engines traveled farther from home 

 than to New York. In 1797 Salem, having bought several in 

 England during the previous years, ordered one from a Phila- 

 delphia maker by the name of Samuel Briggs. The journey to 

 Salem so injured the machine that it was useless on its arrival, 

 and the maker had to send on an agent to superintend its repair. 



The history of the Boston Fire Department states that in 1798 

 a Mr. Fenno, of that town, made some new hose for engine five. 

 This seems to be the first mention of the making of fire hose in 

 this country. Although the Boston authorities had prohibited 

 the importation of foreign engines, they did not put the same 

 restrictions upon hose. In the same year they purchased two 

 hundred feet of hemp hose from Holland, giving as their reason 

 for so doing that the English and American kinds were unsat- 

 isfactory. 



The New York firemen saw at an early date the need of some- 

 thing more effectual than land engines with which to fight fires 

 on the water front. Somewhere between 1805 and 1810 a large 

 boat, rowed by twenty-four men, and provided with a fire engine, 



