October i, 1909.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



New York Fire Engine, 1785. 



Built on the English model, by 



1 1 >ne of the first made in America. 



] ac 'li I'' 1 ' 'Tin 1 



"Amoskeag* Steam Fire Engine (Double Plunger), i 



[The first manufacture of steam fire engines in America, begun at Man- 

 chester, New Hampshire, in 1S59.] 



Rubber Fire Hose Forty Years Ago. 



A DISTINCT new epoch in municipal fire fighting was just 

 starting forty years ago — a step in progress with 

 which is connected one of the most interesting chap- 

 ters in the history of the india-rubber industry. The subject 

 is brought to the mind of the writer through his having come 

 across files of a journal devoted to fire department interests* 

 which was started at the beginning of 1869 and went out of 

 existence on December 31 of that year. Hence the reference 

 to a period just forty years ago. 



The Metropolitan Fire Department, in Xew York, and the 

 Metropolitan Fire Brigade, in London, had recently been or- 

 ganized, both based upon practically the same ideas, the 

 principal of which was the substitution of paid firemen for 

 volunteer services. The merits of the two systems were 

 hotly discussed, and paid departments came into vogue only 

 gradually. They were adopted in Brooklyn and in Philadel- 

 phia during 1869, and wherever adopted the change made eas- 

 ier the introduction of improved fire apparatus, in which 

 rubber hose was to prove so important a factor. 



"Not the least among the progressive steps made during 

 the past few years," said this fireman's journal in 1869. "has 

 been the substitution of the steam fire engine in the place 

 of the comparatively inefficient apparatus formerly in use." 

 At that time steam fire engines had been in the market for 

 just ten years, the largest manufacturer having produced only 

 ,?j8 machines, less than 200 designed to be drawn by horses 

 and the others, of lighter weight, to be drawn by men. It 

 is worth quoting here that in 1869 Captain Eyre M. Shaw, 

 head of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade of London, visited the 

 I'uited States on a tour of study, and on his return was 

 reported by the London press as regarding it "a very singu- 

 lar and unaccountable fact" that the use of hand-worked en- 

 gines was being ignored in American cities, instead of being 

 retained for use in connection with the steam engines. Lon- 

 don then had 2$ steam and 80 hand-worked engines. 



An illustration on this page relates to the first, or one of 

 the first, "fire engines" built in Xew York; formerly they 

 were all imported. This particular engine was the first used 

 in Brooklyn, and was built in 1785, at a cost of £150 [= about 

 $750]. It differed little in appearance from the first engine 

 used in New York, imported in 17.30, and differed less in 

 principle from the fire-fighting machines in vogue up to the 

 era of steam engines. These early engines were operated 

 without any hose. Water was poured into them from buck- 



ets, and forced out through a metal pipe by means of a pump. 

 The apparatus illustrated had 180 gallons capacity and a 6- 

 foot pipe with J^-inch nozzle, through which water could be 

 discharged 60 feet. It was 76 years before Brooklyn had a 

 steam engine. 



Leathern hose or pipes had been used earlier in London. 

 An enactment in Queen Anne's reign (1708) mentions such 

 hose in connection with fire apparatus, but probably little of 

 it was used in America until a century later. But by 1869 a 

 vast amount of leather hose was employed by the 120 fire 

 departments in this country. No less than eight firms adver- 

 tised leather hose in the journal under review. When Brook- 

 lyn's paid fire department took shape an official report says 

 that the hose — leather — "was found to be in a very ques- 

 tionable condition. Whether new or old, merely nominal 

 attention had been paid to the greasing or repairing of it. 

 and instead of wearing out in actual service much of it was 

 in a form to fall to pieces from corrosion and neglect." No 

 doubt this would have applied to leather fire hose in general. 



The Xew York department took up rubber — or. rather, 

 "combination" — hose in earnest just before 1869. By August 

 of that year it had purchased "over 55.000 feet" of the pat- 

 ented mildew-proof hose of the "Maltese Cross" brand, the 

 manufacturers of which were beginning to find a market for 



'The Fireman's Journal, edited first by Fred J. Miller, and later by 

 William C. Lewis, No. 34 Liberty street, "New York. 



"Amoskeag" Steam Fire Engine, 1909. 



[These machines are now built by International Tower Co. (Boston). 

 The machine illustrated has rubber tires.] 



