49 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The year 1840 marks the beginning of a great era in the devel- 

 opment of fire apparatus, although the stupidity of the general 

 public prevented the adoption of the improved methods for sev- 

 eral years later. Stationary steam pumps had been used in mills 

 for some years previous to 1842, but up to that time a portable 

 steam fire engine was a thing unknown in this country. In 1830 

 Captain Ericsson, then of London, but later famed as the builder 

 of the Monitor, designed a steam fire engine, and the firm of 

 Braithwaite & Ericsson built one machine and operated it in 

 London entirely at their own expense in the hopes that more 

 might be introduced. They met with so much opposition, how- 

 ever, not only from the press but forcible interference from the 

 firemen, that they abandoned the attempt. The Prussian Govern- 

 ment in 1832 ordered a steam fire engine built that threw a single 

 stream one inch and a half in diameter. 



Fig. 7. First Steam Fike Engine in the Dnited States, 1840. 



After his failure in London Captain Ericsson thought he would 

 try again with the more progressive Americans, but he was doomed 

 to disappointment. Designs that he made for an engine were 

 awarded a prize by the American Institute in 1840, but no ma- 

 chine was built. The first steam fire engine ever built or used 

 in the United States was one made by Mr. Paul R. Hodge for the 

 Matteawan Insurance Company, of New York. The engine was 

 a self -propeller, and when working at a fire was blocked up so 

 that its hind wheels might be used as balance wheels. When 

 housed it was connected with boilers, and fuel was always laid 

 that steam might be got up quickly. This engine was operated 

 at the expense of the insurance company, but continually met 

 with opposition from the volunteer firemen. Finally, when play- 

 ing at a fire in Dover Street, the machine did such excellent work 

 that the firemen utterly refused to allow it to be used thereafter, 



