Year

Nation

Maker

Description

Picture

1725

England

Newsham

Richard Newsham patented this style of engine in 1718.  His company built most English fire engines during the 18th century.  The American colonies imported a large number of Newshams for their own fire companies.  The engine uses a twin cylinder single acting pump equipped with an air chamber.  Because reliable hose was unavailable in the 18th century most Newsham engines used a metal spout like the one shown or used a short length of leather hose connected to a branch pipe.  Water was provided by a bucket brigade which emptied buckets into the hopper at the engines rear.  

The engine also came with a suction fitting which could draft water from a cistern or portable dam.  A lever allowed the engine to use either buckets or suction, but not both at the same time.  Pump handles called brakes powered the pump.  A pump of this size could employ about 12 men.  In addition a pair of treadles mounted to the pump's quadrants could be moved up and down by two or three men standing upon them, grabbing the two horizontal bars for stability.  

This type of pump with treadles was called a bedpost style because of its resemblance to a bed.  The pump could be pulled by hand or loaded onto a wagon for horsed drawn transport.  Newsham pumps were very well made and often remained in service for several decades.  This machine was purchased from an antique dealer in London who had no real information on its use and origins.  It can pump about 80 gallons of water at a rate of 60 strokes per minute.

ca. 1740

England

Newsham

Newsham Manual Fire Engine

This is a smaller size Newsham engine.  Its principle of operation is identical to the one above, but it lacks a pair of treadles.  It spent its working life in England and came with essentially no provenance from a London based antique dealer.

ca. 1760

England

Newsham

This is what was called an estate pumper because of their popularity with the owners of large estates.  England lacked municipal brigades until the 1860s.  Until then insurance companies provide most of the nation's fire companies.  Industrial fire brigades were common, and many large churches established brigades.  

Estate owners also organized fire brigades which they commonly made available to villages near the estates.  This engine was pulled by hand to the fire.  Firemen then lifted the tub and pump from the chassis and carried it into the burning structure or to some other position of advantage. Water was dumped in the open tub by buckets, and could be played directly on the fire.  

This was much more effective than relying on a pipe to direct water through a door or window onto a fire.  We know little about the engine's use, beyond the fact that it spent its entire working career in England.

1820

England

Simpson

This is another English pump with a limited provenance.  I was presumably built around 1820, when reliable riveted leather hose was available, since it has only a single discharge pipe with no provision for a rigid branch pipe.  Museum restorer Don Hale found the legend "Simpson  ... Pimlico" at the engine's rear.  

It is more lightly built than our Newsham's, but is sturdy enough.  It has the advantage of an easily accessed valve housing to replace the leather valves which allowed the pump to draft and discharge water. A Newsham required a complete pump removal to replace its leathers.

1840

England

Merryweather

Merryweather Estate Fire Engine

The firm of Merryweather purchased Newsham's old company and continued to build apparatus until the 1980s.  This is a compact and very well built engine that was popular with industrial and estate brigades.  It could be pulled by hand to a fire and pump about 60 gallons per minute on a fire, using leather or linen hose.  It could draft water or be supplied by buckets. 

1880

England

Merryweather

Merryweather Barrow Fire Engine

Merryweather built  this portable engine from around 1880 until well into the 1920s.  A small twin cylinder pump with air chamber , suction side and discharge side was mounted on a wheelbarrow style chassis.  During the 1920's Merryweather mounted tham on the side car of a motorcycle.  Two to four men could pump about 20 gallons per minute.

1850

England

Shand Mason

Shand Mason was England's second largest builder of apparatus in the 19th century.  This medium sized engine could pump about 60 gallons per minute.  The bin atop the chassis could contain several hundred feet of hose.  

Linen hose was preferred because it was much less costly than leather hose, was much easier to handle, and required much less maintenance.  On the negative side it was much more fragile than leather hose and tended to leak until the linen yarn was saturated by water.  The engine spent its entire working life in England.