flame must be attacked. My father was never an 

 active member of any fire company, though his 

 name stood on the rolls of several as an honorary 

 member. I think these were companies he had 

 built engines for. 



Simple as the question is, as it now appears to us, of 

 applying the water through a hose directly to the 

 burning fuel, it was at that time the great stumbling- 

 block. Hose companies suffered so much from the 

 ripping of seams, or bursting of hose as it was called, 

 when subjected to the force and pressure of the fire 

 engine pumps that they refused to allow it to be used 

 in that way. This led to the invention of what for 

 many years was known as the '•Hydraulion," a com- 

 bination fire engine and hose carriage in one, and 

 was designed by my father, 23 the Philadelphia Hose 

 Company being the first to adopt it, and the'Thoenix" 

 the next to follow. A large number of a smaller class 

 of these were built for country towns and smaller 

 cities, Richmond, Ya., Washington, D.C., and 

 Providence, R.I.. taking the largest class. 



The water supply of Philadelphia, in case of fires, 

 was very deficient, the main supply being from the 

 small reservoir 24 in the dome of the pump house in 

 Centre Square (the present site of the new public 

 buildings of Philadelphia). It was conducted through 

 bored wooden logs of such small capacity that in 

 case of fire citizens having hydrants were requested 

 not to use them. Every block where the system 

 extended was provided with a fire plug or hydrant, 

 so poorly constructed that notwithstanding straw 

 wrapping and wooden curbs they were apt to be 

 frozen, and useless in cold spells; besides these fire 

 plugs each square had a small wooden cistern sunk 

 under the pavement, with a wooden hand pump for 

 public use. These cisterns were kept full by a hollow 



23 According to Scharf and Westcott (vol. 3, p. 1896), 

 the Hydraulion was built in 1814 by James Sellers. The Journal 

 of the Franklin Institute (May 1827), vol. 3, pp. 286-287, credits 

 William P. Morris, member of Philadelphia Hose, for the 

 idea and James Sellers for the design of the Hydraulion. 



24 According to Latrobe, 7,500 gallons, which in 1803 supplied 

 normal city demand for only 25 minutes, but which could be 

 refilled in 6 minutes ("Manuscript Communications to A.P.S., 

 Mechanics. Machinery, etc., no. 25, B. H. Latrobe Report on 

 Steam Engines in U.S., read May 27, 1803," in American 

 Philosophical Society Library). Latrobe's report was pub- 

 lished in Transactions oj the American Philosophical Sociel) (1809), 

 vol. 6, pp. 89-98, but this passage was struck out before the 

 manuscript reached the printer. A capacity of 22,500 gallons 

 was given in Report <// the Committee Appoint,:! by the Common 

 Council to Enquire into Ho- State of tin: Water Works (Philadelphia: 

 1802), p. 48, a copy of which is in Franklin Institute Library. 



copper floating ball, that opened or closed a common 

 stop cock. Many of the old public wells had not been 

 closed; their pumps were always of service. 



The hook and ladder companies ran with them a 

 fire-bucket carriage; some of the engine companies 

 also had their bucket carriage. All public buildings 

 and halls, as well as many entries of private residences, 

 had their suspended rows of fire buckets. These were 

 made of leather, stitched as hose was, stiffened by 

 "jacking," or saturated with a mixture of resin and 

 wax over a charcoal fire. They were fancifully 

 painted with the names of the institutions or parties 

 they belonged to, and they played an active part in 

 supplying water to the fire engines. It was not an 

 uncommon occurrence to see lines of bucket-passers 

 of men and boys, and often women, slinging from 

 hand to hand buckets of water from pumps as much 

 as two blocks from the fire engine. 



To understand the difficulties attending the use of 

 sewed leather hose under heavy pressure, we must 

 look at the manner of its construction. There were 

 two plans. One was simply lapping one edge of the 

 leather over the other, as is now done in the case 

 of riveted hose, and sewing two lines of stitches from 

 inside to out. The objection to this was serious. In 

 dragging the hose when in use over the cobble stones 

 of the street the outside stitches would soon wear off 

 and the hose would rip. The plan generally adopted 

 by the Philadelphia hose companies was to double or 

 fold the leather so it would lay flat together, insert a 

 strip of soft leather between, like a shoe welt, trim 

 the edges straight, sew two rows of stitches through 

 the leather and welt strip, exactly as harness traces 

 are sewed. When the hose was opened this would 

 present a ridge or rib from end to end, with the 

 stitches protected from wear when dragging. The 

 strain of head pressure was brought lengthways of 

 the stitches as they passed through the leather. The 

 soft leather strip was left to project slightly inside the 

 hose, which, when wet and opened, was beat into 

 the seam, tending to make it tight. 



Xew hose when first made would stand the required 

 pressure, but the hemp stitches would soon lose their 

 strength. The dubbing of train or neatsfoot oil and 

 tallow, which used to render the leather impervious 

 to water and keep it soft and pliable, had the effect 

 of destroying by a kind of rot the hemp stitching, so 

 that its lifetime was very short. The stitches would 

 give way while the leather remained in good condi- 

 tion. A stronger union than hemp stitches was not 

 only desirable but was an imperative necessity, and 



