APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES. 



489 



lie began the manufacture of hand engines, and in 18G1 added 

 the making of steam fire engines to his business. Crockett, E. B. 

 Juckett, Henry Waterman, Pake & Kells, John R. Adams, John 

 Agnew, and several others were well-known names connected 

 with the building of hand fire engines, but it is difficult to obtain 

 the dates at which they entered the field. Many of them made 

 steam engines at a later date. 



It is hard to realize that at the end of the first half of the 

 nineteenth century the fire departments of this country were 

 still far behind the times both in organization and in apparatus. 

 Stearn railroads were pushing out in every direction, steam ves- 

 sels were crossing the ocean, steam power was being used in 

 countless mills, the electric telegraph had been invented, the 

 equipments of the army and navy were being continually im- 

 proved, and machinery was taking the place of hand work in 

 every kind of manufactory. The firemen, on the other hand, 

 were using manual engines drawn by hand, small and inadequate 

 ladder trucks and hose reels, also dragged to fires by the fire- 

 men themselves. Their apparatus was removed but a few steps 



Fig. G. Ericsson's Engine. (From Scribner's Magazine, by permission of the publishers.) 



from the old squirting syringes. The men were brave, but did 

 their work of their own free will. After the city government 

 had paid for the engines the firemen assumed all other expenses. 

 It is not the purpose of this article to discuss the organization 

 of the volunteer fire departments, but simply to show how handi- 

 capped they were by apparatus that was out of date, and entirely 

 unfit to cope with the fires that were sure to occur in the inflam- 

 mable and rapidly growing cities. 



