1. Fire Engines 

 and Leather Hose 



In the 18-volume American edition of Brewster's 

 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, published in 1832 in 

 Philadelphia, three plates were added to the. 

 400-odd engraved plates of the original work. 

 One of these added plates exhibited the "Hydraul- 

 ion," as the Sellers and Pennock lire engine was 

 called, and the riveted leather hose whose de- 

 velopment is described in this chapter. The 

 plate is reproduced here as figure 8. 



Volunteer fire companies, divided by their 

 function into "engine" companies and "hose" 

 companies, were exceedingly numerous when 

 George Escol Sellers was a boy. Rivalry amongst 

 the various companies, always keen, became at 

 times so intense that the business of extinguishing 

 a fire was subordinated to the business of prevent- 

 ing another engine company from getting the 

 first stream on the fire. 



Patrick Lyon (1 769-1 829). " a very able mecha- 



nician who is known today mainly because of 

 artist John Xeagle's vivid life-size painting of 

 Pat at his forge, had been building fire engines 

 and hose carriages since 1794, 14 many years 

 before the Sellers family became involved in their 

 manufacture. Upon returning in 181 8 from a 

 sojourn abroad, Pat stated flatly and character- 

 istically, in an advertisement, that his engines 

 (built for cash only) were "far superior to any 

 imported or made here." ls 



Riveted "hose, or leather tubes" and riveted 

 leather mail bags were patented by Abraham L. 

 Pennock and James Sellers on July 6, 1 81 8. 16 

 The firm of Sellers and Pennock, probably formed 

 about the time of the patents, included George 

 Escol's father Goleman, Coleman's cousins James 

 and Samuel, and Abraham Pennock. i; The 

 author's later adventures in the Sellers and 

 Pennock shops are recounted in chapter 7. 



13 Coming to Philadelphia in 1793. after serving an appren- 

 ticeship in London, Pat Lyon was at 24 an honest, blunt- 

 spoken man who prospered almost immediately as a skillful 

 craftsman. Before his misfortunes of 1708 he employed four 

 or five journeymen mechanics. In 1 798 he was imprisoned 

 and cruelly persecuted for a bank robbery that he was innocent 

 of. Suspected because he had made the doors of the bank's 

 cash vault, he was thrown into the Walnut Street jail in Sep- 

 tember, where he remained for nearly three months, even after 

 the actual thief had been caught, the money had been returned, 

 and the culprit had disclaimed Pat Lyon as an accomplice. 

 Seven years later, in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, he 

 won his suit for false arrest and malicious defamation of char- 

 acter against the mayor of Philadelphia and the bank officers. 

 The verdict brought forth spontaneous cheers from a crowded 

 courtroom. For events leading to and resulting from his in- 

 carceration, see Patrick Lyon, The Narrative of Patrick Lyon 

 (Philadelphia: 1799); Robbery of the Bank 0/ Pennsylvania in 

 iyg8; and The Trial in the Supreme Court oj the State 0/ Pennsyl- 

 vania (Philadelphia: 1808) reported from notes by Thomas 

 Lloyd. 



i J J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott, History of 

 Philadelphia, 1609-1884, 3 vols. (Philadelphia: 1884), vol. 3. 

 p. 1907. 



15 Aurora (Philadelphia), July 2, 1818. 



"'' U.S. Patent Office, List oj" Patents for Inventions . . . IJQO- 

 184J (Washington, 1847), pp. 223, 298. Both patents were 

 issued on the same day. No specification or restored drawings 

 (restored after Patent Office fire of 1836) exist for these patents 

 in the National Archives, where early patent records are pre- 

 served. However, litigation over the patents reached the U.S. 

 Supreme Court. According to George Escol Sellers, the case 

 established an important point regarding disclosure in patent 

 law (American Machinist, July 3, 1886, vol. g, p. 3). For seven 

 references to records of litigation, see Shepard's Federal Reporter 

 Citations [Shepard's Digest], 1938, vol. 1, p. 2 3 r 9 fT. For an 

 amusing sidelight on the "exorbitantly high" price charged by 

 Pennock and Sellers for riveted hose, see Message from the Pres- 

 ident of the United States . . . Concerning the Purchase of Fire 

 Engines, Dec. 13, 1820 (S. Doc. 20, 1 6th Cong., 2d sess.). 



17 American Machinist (July 3, 1886), vol. 9, p. 3. 



