7. Sellers and Pennock 

 Fire Engine Works 



A cousin of George Escol's father, James 

 Sellers, was in the fire engine trade for several 

 years before the short-lived partnership of 

 Jacob Perkins and Coleman Sellers was formed. 

 It was James Sellers who developed, perhaps as 

 early as 1811, riveted leather hose as described 

 in an earlier chapter. It was not until 181 8, 

 however, that he took out a patent for it, in 

 collaboration with Abraham L. Pennock. 



The date at which the partnership of Coleman, 

 his cousins James and Samuel, and Pennock — 

 doing business under the name of Sellers and 

 Pennock — was formed to carry on engine and 

 hose making is thus uncertain. However, the 

 "regular fire engine shop" at 1 6th and Market 

 Streets that the author refers to in the following 



passage is that of Sellers and Pennock. 60 



Samuel Morey's visit to Philadelphia occurred 

 sometime during the 1820's. The explosive vapor 

 vacuum engine, one of the earliest internal com- 

 bustion engines to be developed in the United 

 States, was patented in 1826. 



The sojourn of the titled itinerant German 

 craftsman, whom we know only as Henri Mogeme, 

 apparently occurred in 1823. 



Charles Sellers, the author's elder brother, took 

 charge of the shops in 1826. Two years later, 

 Coleman withdrew from this partnership, moved 

 to the Sellers lands in Upper Darby Township, 

 Delaware County, and built the shops that gave 

 their name to the section of Upper Darby now- 

 known as Cardington. 



Ijefore we quit school, I made all the working 

 drawings for the Hydraulion. It is curious how, 

 before the establishment of the shop at Market & 16th 

 Streets, the first engines were gotten together. I 

 have already told how the brass cylinders were 

 bored in the garret of Market Street, ' ' the patterns 

 from which they were cast being made in father's 

 shop and the castings being made by John Wiltbank. 62 



60 In an 1828 Philadelphia directory, "Sellers & Pennock 

 patent rivet hose and fire engine manuf." was located at 231 

 High (the Market Street store), and also at Schuylkill Seventh 

 (16th Street) on the west side, one door south of High. 



151 I have found no specific description of Coleman Sellers's 

 cylinder boring operation, which was no mean job at the time. 

 It can only be assumed that the boring was done on a foot- 

 driven lathe, however, from which I should guess that the 

 cylinders were not larger than 4 or 5 inches in diameter. 



12 John Wiltbank, of 262 High Street (Philadelphia directories 

 of 1828 and 1838), who bought the Cardington property upon 

 the failure of the Sellers brothers machine works in 1838 or 

 1839 (Memoirs, book 5, p. 17). 



The air vessels and other copper work was done by- 

 Israel Morris. I think this was the man, he lived on 

 the corner of 3rd and New Sts., his shop being in the 

 rear on Xew St. I think this was the name of the 

 street, a street from 3rd to 4th opposite the Catholic 

 Church above Race or Vine. 63 Joseph Oat was his 

 foreman and after he went into business did the 

 copper work for .Sellers & Pennock until they estab- 

 lished their own shop. 6i The cast iron cylinder heads 

 were cast and turned and the stuHing boxes filled at 



'3 This was St. Augustine's Church, on North 4th Street, 

 between Race and Vine. Xew Street is correct; it was also 

 called Story Street. 



"Joseph Oat w-as a coppersmith at 12 Quarry .Street for some 

 time before taking his son, in 1843, into the partnership of 

 Joseph Oat and Son (Nicholas B. Wainwright, Philadelphia 

 in the Romatic Age oj Lithography, Philadelphia, Historical So- 

 ciety of Pennsylvania, 1958, p. 159). 



43 



