组织ry and Evolution of Fire Fighting
Oldest Pumping Engines of Modern Times Made in Germany—Continued from November 14 Issue
THE oldest pump engines of modern times were certainly made in Germany, and about the close of the 16th or the beginning of the next century. The first one was that of Hewtsch, which was tried out at Nuremberg in 1656. In speaking of this machine, which is shown in Fig. 4, Beckman, a writer of that time, states:
“This engine is much practiced in Germany, and it hath been seen what great and ready help it may bring; for although the fire be 40 foot high, the said engine shall there cast its water by help of four or five men lifting up and putting down a long handle, in the form of a lever, where the handle of the pump is fastened; there are two suckers (valves) within it, one below to open when the handle is lifted up, and to shut when it is put down; and another to open to let out the water; and at the end of said engine there is a man which holds the copper pipe, turning it to and again to the place where the fire shall be.“
In other words, this was a single acting pump secured in a tub.
This type of fire engine subsequently found use in England and other European countries.
Two Pump Engines in Cistern Long in Use
For nearly a hundred years after the date of Hautsch’s engine those used throughout Europe, with the exception perhaps of a few cities in Germany, were of very similar design. But they consisted simply of two instead of one pump placed in a chest or cistern that was moved on wheels or sleds, and sometimes carried by men like the old sedan chair. These engines differed from each other only in their dimensions and the modes of working them.
F’ig. 5 will convey a pretty correct idea of this engine which was used during the early part of the 18th Century. This machine belonged to Strasbourg. The front part of the cistern in which the pumps were fixed, was separated by a perforated hoard from the rear part, into which the water was poured from buckets. The cylinders were four inches in diameter, and the pistons had a stroke of ten inches. Each pump was worked by a separate lever, an injudicious plan, since a very few hands could be employed on each; and as the engine had no air vessel it was necessary, in order to keep up the stream, that the piston should be raised and depressed alternately—a condition not easily performed by individuals unused to the operation, and acting under the excitement of a spreading conflagration.
Air Chamber and Leather Hose Introduced
During the next 25 years two of the greatest improvements made in these machines were introduced about the same time; the air chamber and flexible pipe of leather; upon these principally the efficiency of the hand engines as used in this country depended. By the former the stream thrown from a single pump was rendered continuous, and by the latter, it was no longer necessary to take the engine itself into, or close to the building on fire; wherein most cases it was impossible, from the heat of the flames and smoke to use it with effect.
Hose had been used previously but seemed to have dropped out of use and was then rediscovered, or resurrected for fire purposes.
组织ry shows us that in 1672 leather hose was first publicly used, to convey water from engines to fire by John and Nicholas Van der Heide, in Amsterdam, of which city they were inspectors or superintendents of fire apparatus. They made the hose in 50 foot lengths (the same as we now employ) with brass screws fitted to the ends, so that any number could quickly be connected together, as the occasion might require.
The invention of hose was probably the biggest step forward in the art of fire fighting.
For want of hose, engines themselves had been frequently burned; this was indeed a common occurrence and is often mentioned in the notices of conflagrations. In the great fire of London the rapid spread of fire drove the firemen from their engines, and many were destroyed. In 1731 a great part of the town of Blanford, England, was destroyed, and in an account published by one of the witnesses, he said; “the engines were play’d, but were soon burnt.” This loss of engines was invariably caused by the want of hose, making it necessary to place the pump alongside the fire.
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Perier in France, Leopold in Germany, and Newsham in England, contemporaneous engine makers in the early part of the 18th Century, were greatly celebrated in their respective countries. They were sometimes considered inventors of the fire engine, though very erroneously, for so far as the principle of its construction, application of the air vessel, goose-neck, hose, were concerned, the engine was perfected before their time. Their merits consisted in improving these machines in various minor details.
