THE OLDEST KNOWN FIRE ENGINE.

Manawatu Herald, 19 February 1898, Page 4

THE OLDEST KNOWN FIRE ENGINE.

Facts Concerning Fire Engines, Ancient and Modern. What i 3 perhaps the oldest known flro cngino for pumping water Is mentioned in the Spiritalia of Hero, about 150 B. C. Ths3 engine had two single acting pumps, tbo plungers of whioh wcro worked by a einglo beam pivoted betweeen tho two. Tho streams united in a single discharge pipe, passing up a trunk in which was an air chamber, aud out at a nozzle which could bo turned in any direction. Thla description might stand for a great many forms of hand flro engines used ovon to tho present day, writes Joseph Sachs in Caesier's Magazine. The early Romans appear to have paid somo attention to fire extinguishing apparatus and had an organized flro brigade. Something like tha more modorn fire ongino appears to have' beon brought out in tho early parts of tho sixteenth century and is described as a "water syringe. " This was mounted on wheels and worked by levers. Fire engines of this kind were apparently much used in Germany. In England during the latter pnrt of the sixteenth contury largo brass syringes were employod, holding several quarts of water and operated by three men, two holding tho syringe at each sido with ono hand and direoting tho nozzlo with the other and the third operating tho plunger. After having discharged the water the syringe was refilled from a cistern or well near tho fire or from buckets. Later theso water squirts were fitted to portable cisterns or tanks. In the latter part of the seventeenth contury a portablo engine, mounted on a oistern or tank from which tho water was drawn, was introduced in England by Newshara. This engine wns in many re-, spects similar to tho modern hand flro engine and continued in use in England up to 1832. The Nowsham engino was perhaps the first successful flro engino and really was the pioneer of tho modern manually operated engines. Tho pumps were of various sizes and designs and wcro in most cases operated by levers. Various forma of engines similar to the Newsham engine continued in nsei as lato as 1850.