Year

Nation

Maker

Description

Picture

1880

U.S.

Rumsey

Hand drawn village ladder wagon. Ex - Edgerton, WI

In 1965 we acquired a pair of fine pieces of fire apparatus from the town of Edgerton, Wisconsin.  The first was a 1922 American La France Type 75 fire engine.  Don Hale restored this piece in 1990.  The second acquisition from Edgerton was a hand drawn village ladder wagon which the town had purchased used in 1887.  Town records did not disclose the name of the original owner, but did list the rig as having been built in 1880.  There was no maker's name on the rig, but it is very similar in style to Rumsey ladder wagons of the day.  Rumsey, a Seneca Falls, New York maker, was one of the leading manufacturers of hand drawn fire apparatus in the late 19th century.  As with the 1908 Pirsch ladder wagon , Mr. Getz commissioned a refurbishment of the wagon which left a lot of room for improvement.  The wagon's running gear is made almost entirely of wood supported by strips of wrought iron.  The wheels, had a lot of wood rot.  The ladder rack, too, had been clumsily modified sometime during its life.  There was a distinct possibility that the suspension might fail and break one or more axles. 

In the Fall of 2001 we rolled the wagon into Don Hale's shop for a complete restoration.  Don reinforced the suspension, rebuilt all of the wheels, and re-fashioned the ladder rack to its original configuration.  He then took the paint down to bare wood.  Unfortunately the rig had been stripped to bare wood at an earlier time, so we had no idea as to the original paint color or decoration.  We used illustrations form Rumsey trade catalogues of the day.  We also equipped the wagon with a compliment of beam style ladders similar to those shown in trade catalogues.  Fortunately we had a compliment of original leather buckets and helmets and play pipes from the original rig.  In August 2002 we placed the rig back on permanent exhibit in Gallery 1.  

1908

U.S.

Pirsch

Horse drawn city service ladder wagon. Ex - West Allis, WI

George F. Getz, Jr. founded the Hall of Flame in 1961.  He opened a small exhibit in his home town of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin in 1964.  In 1967 he moved the Hall of Flame to Kenosha, Wisconsin.  While in Kenosha he received a nice addition to the collection -- a city service ladder wagon once used in West Allis, Wisconsin.  It was built by the Peter Pirsch Fire Apparatus Company in 1908. During the 1920s West Allis motorized its equipment and donated the ladder wagon to the Wisconsin State Fair, which displayed it on its fairground.  The rig was not well maintained, and fell into disrepair.  Sometime in the 1950s the President of Peter Pirsch,  William Pirsch, purchased the old wagon and stored it on his company's grounds with the intention of restoring it for advertising purposes.  After meeting Mr. Getz, he decided to donate it, un-restored, to the Hall of Flame.  Mr. Getz had the rig refurbished by a local craftsman and placed on display, but it was a far cry from its original appearance.  The Hall of Flame moved to Arizona during the 1970s.  When its Phoenix exhibit building opened in 1974, the West Allis wagon went on display.  Over the next twenty years the Hall's restorer, Don Hale, brought dozens of wheeled pieces back to their original appearance, but never got around to the ladder wagon.  It suffered by comparison to the newly restored pieces, and finally went into storage because it no longer met the Hall's standards for exhibit quality.  

In 2000 Don finally had the time to do a restoration of the rig.  After several months of work, it went back on exhibit in Gallery 1.  Don removed all paint and primer and then filled and sanded the rough metal frame.  Using a Pirsch delivery photo of an identical model ladder wagon that went to Waukegan, Wisconsin, Don painted , striped and gold leafed the wagon.  He had to re-build all four wheels, which had rotted badly on the Wisconsin Fair Grounds.  The rig received a compliment of ladders which William Pirsch donated to the museum in the 1960s.  Don fabricated a new driver's compartment and installed a foot gong.  It was also equipped with lanterns and forcible entry tools appropriate to the era.  

1870

U.S.

Buckley & Merritt

Buckley & Merritt Hand Drawn Parade Carriage.  American.  1870. Ex - Derby, CT

1889

U.S.

Gleason & Bailey

Gleason & Bailey Hand Drawn Parade Carriage.  American.  1889. Hand drawn. Ex - Fishkill on Hudson, NY (Now Beaconsfield, NY).

For many years after its invention in 1807, riveted leather hose was an expensive part of a fire department's inventory.  Only the wealthiest volunteers could afford to organize hose companies, and they commissioned fire apparatus builders to make elaborate carriages to carry the hose.  By 1870 inexpensive cotton and canvas hose was replacing the leather variety, and practical but plain hose carts were the norm.  Not to be deprived of their beautiful carriages, a number of hose companies ordered even more highly decorated and extremely expensive versions of the old carriages, intended only for use in parades or at  ceremonial occasions.  Many modern departments follow this tradition by carefully restoring their old fire engines for display in parades.

W.W. Wunder Hose Carriage.  American. Ca. 1865.   

The intense competition between hose companies in a city fire department led them to commission rigs like this, an attractive but functional carriage with a reel capable of carrying between 300 and 500 feet of 2 ½ inch hose.  It was sturdy enough to do the job, but lavishly decorated with nickel plating and mirror siding for the hose reel and tool bins.  The builder was the W.W. Wunder Company of Reading, Pennsylvania for the Active Hose Company of Philadelphia.  Retired volunteers probably pulled it in parades for years after 1870 when  the department became paid and equipped all of its hose companies with homely but practical horse drawn carts with cotton jacketed hose.  The carriage went into the H. V. Smith collection at the Home Fire Insurance Company.  When that collection was disbanded it went to the FASNY Museum, operated by the Volunteer Fire Departments of New York State.  In 2007 the Museum sold the carriage to the Hall of Flame.  The rig was restored by Don Hale in 2008 and  2009.

The volunteers of Rockland, Maine used this Rumsey  for over 30 years. Its compact design, complete with pump, suction and discharge hose made it a good choice for volunteers.  Pumping capacity is 40 gallons per minute. Hand drawn village fire engine, ex-Rockland and Friendship, ME.

DuGas Dry Chemical Fire extinguisher.  Ca. 1930.  During the 1920s several new fire extinguishing agents began to compete with the simple water-acid units.  Among them was this dry chemical engine, using an inert aluminum compound propelled by a strong charge of nitrogen gas to smother a fire and deprive it of oxygen.  Dry chemical extinguishers dominate the present market, since they are effective on all classes of fire, can not freeze, and cause few environmental problems.  This portable unit was used by  the Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Yacht Club.