remember taking an interest in the subject were 

 Isaiah Lukens, Rufus Tyler and his partner Mason, 

 Matthias Baldwin, Dr. Thomas P. Jones, Dr. Mease. 

 but most frequently old Prof. Robert Patterson who 

 at that time was director of the U.S. Mint and Adam 

 Eckfeldt the chief coiner, who were almost daily 

 visitors. 32 



.... It was the result of these early demonstra- 

 tions 33 that so fixed on my mind the importance ol 

 quickly moving water or strong jets to rapidly carry 

 off the heat that all of my after practice was based 

 on it in some form or other. It was a common prac- 

 tice with Lukens and Mason and Tyler. I have a 

 distinct recollection of seeing Lukens harden a pair 

 of small steel rolls he had made for Charles VVillson 

 Peale to roll the gold plates for the artificial teeth 

 he was then making. These rolls were less than 3 

 inches in diameter and about 4 inches on the face. 

 He heated them with a charcoal fire in a muffle 

 furnace, he placed them in V bearings under a 

 hydrant jet and with one hand he regulated the jet 

 and the other rotated the roll. [4] 



While Perkins was engaged in the banknote en- 

 graving business in Philadelphia, he exhibited to my 

 father drawings of his single-chamber fire-engine, 

 with combined plunger and piston, the plunger 

 filling just one-half the area or space of the chamber. 34 



32 Baldwin, Jones, Mease, and Patterson (father and son) arc 

 noticed in Dictionary of American Biography. William Mason, 

 engraver in brass, etc. (1820) and philosophical instrument 

 maker and engineer (1825), formed a partnership with Matthias 

 Baldwin in 1825; they made book binder*s tools and calico 

 printing cylinders (Scharf and Westcott, cited in note 14 

 above, vol. 3, p. 2255). Rufus Tyler, machinist (1825), was 

 partner of Mason through April 1827. Mason and Tyler 

 were die sinkers and makers of "machines in general, par- 

 ticularly where great accuracy and excellence of workmanship 

 are required; such as Rose-engines; Sliding-rests; fine Turning- 

 lathes; Lever, Screw, and Drop-presses; calico engraving 

 machines; machines for engraving and stamping Bank note dies, 

 &c, &c." {Journal oj the Franklin Institute, 1827, vol. 3, adver- 

 tisement by firm of Mason and Tyler on back cover of each 

 issue through April 1827; starting in May 1827, the advertise- 

 ments appear under the name of Tyler only.) Lukens and 

 Eckfeldt appear again in later chapters. 



33 The omitted passage (1500 words) just preceding this 

 note described Perkins's demonstration of the varying effects 

 of water in small and large quantities upon a very hot surface — 

 say 1200 F. This was by way of preparation for a demon- 

 stration of Blind Hawkins's high pressure steam generator, 

 mentioned in the next chapter. 



As the piston rises, the water, flowing in, fills the 

 entire space of the chamber below it. On being 

 depressed, the lower valve closing, all the water 

 passes through valves in the piston, and, as the 

 plunger fills just half the space, one-half the water 

 is ejected from the nozzle, equal amounts being 

 ejected on both rising and descending strokes. In 

 its simplicity of construction, as arranged by Mr. 

 Perkins, lay all its merits. He estimated that it 

 could be constructed at a cost of fully 25 percent less 

 than the common double-chamber engine. The 

 plunger, the chamber, the surrounding cylinder 

 that carried the water from its escape holes in the top 

 of the chamber to the bottom of the surrounding air 

 vessel, and the air vessel itself, were all to be made of 

 drawn copper tubes or cylinders, and clamped between 

 brass bottom and headplates by outside bolts, the 

 same elongated bolts securing it to the bottom of the 

 wooden engine-box or tub; he also showed the plan 

 of a machine he had devised, and fully tested, for 

 drawing, or rather forcing, these copper tubes or 

 cylinders through dies. 



At that time, owing to the smallness of the mains — 

 in fact, all the street pipes were disproportionate to 

 the number of hydrants — the city was very inade- 

 quately supplied with water. Good housewives, at 

 night, when the hydrants would run, filled their tubs 

 and buckets for the next day's supply. Almost every 

 square had its street cistern and pump, around which, 

 of evenings, hosts of men, women, and children would 

 collect, waiting their turn to fill their buckets or 

 garden watering-pots (Philadelphia was always a 

 city of grass plats and small gardens); and Mr. Per- 

 kins argued that a cheap garden engine, that could 

 be run to these cistern pumps like a wheel barrow, 

 would have rapid sale. He planned an oval upright 

 tub on two wheels, with wheelbarrow handles and 

 legs, with one of his small single-chamber pumps in 

 it. To build these and small village fire engines, my 

 father joined him under the firm name of Perkins & 

 Sellers. They located their works at the head of 

 St. James', a little court or street that ran east from 

 Seventh above Market Street. This was the germ 



34 No records exist in the National Archives of Perkins's 

 fire engine patents of August 6, 1812, and March 23, 1813, 

 listed in L'.S. Patent Office, List of Patents . . . 1790-1847, 

 pp. 221, 224. However, a description and cut are in John 

 Nicholson, The Operative Mechanic and British Machinist, 2d 

 American cd. from 3d London ed. (Philadelphia: 1 83 1 ), 

 vol. 1, p. 284. 



15 



