Chap. 7.]

English Engines in 1633.

321

feet in length-two brazen hand squirts to each parish-four-and-twenty pickax sledges-and forty shod shovels.

2. That each of the twelve companies provide themselves with an engine-thirty buckets-three ladders-six pickax sledges-and two hand squirts; to be ready upon all occasions. And the inferior companies such a number of small engines and buckets, as should be allotted them by the Lord Mayor and court of Aldermen.

3. That the Aldermen passed the office of Shrievalty, do provide their several houses with four-and-twenty buckets, and one hand squirt each ; and those who have not served that office, twelve buckets and one hand squirt each.

4. And for the effectual supplying the engines and squirts with water, pumps were to be placed in all wells; and fire plugs in the several main pipes belonging to the New River and Thames Water-works." Maitland. The oldest account of English fire-engines that we have seen is in a small old quarto in our possession, the title page of which is wanting. From two poetical addresses to the author, it appears that the initial letters of his name were I. B., and that the work was entitled "A Treatise on Art and Nature." Two thirds of it are occupied with " water-works," and the rest with "fier-works," except four or five pages on voyces, cals, cryes and sounds;" i. e. on making of whistles, &c. for sportsmen to imitate the voices of certain birds and other game. The date of publication was about 1634: this, we infer from page 51, where, speaking of " The engin near the north end of London bridge, [he observes] which engin I circumspectly vieued as I accidentally passed by, immediately after the late fier that was upon the bridge. Anno 1633." Shops and dwelling houses were built on both sides of the bridge at that time.

After describing several modes of raising water by sucking, forcing and chain pumps, he continues:-" Having sufficiently spoken concerning mils and engins for mounting water for meer conveyance, thence we may derive divers squirts and petty engins to be drawn upon wheeles from place to place, for to quench fier among buildings; the use whereof hath been found very commodious and profitable in cities and great townes." Hence engines were at this time not uncommon in England. No less than seven are figured by the author, and all are placed in cisterns or tubs mounted on wheels: neither air vessels nor hose pipes are described or mentioned. Five of the engines consist of single cylinders; of these some are in a perpendicular position, others are laid horizontally, and one is inverted, and fed by a branch pipe covered by a valve. The last one figured has two horizontal cylinders, a suggestion of the author's, and the piston rods are shown as worked alternately by pallets or arms on a vertical shaft, to which a reciprocating rotary movement was imparted by pushing a horizontal lever to and fro. One of these old fire-engines is a species of bellows pump, the construction of which we will endeavour to explain: Two brass vessels were connected at their open ends to a bag of leather they resemble, both in shape and size, two men's hats, the linings of which being pulled out and sewed together form a cylindrical bag between them. A circular opening, six or seven inches in diameter, was made through a horizontal piece of plank fixed in the cistern of the engine, and over this opening one of the vessels, with its crown upwards, was placed, and made fast by screws through the rim: the other vessel being suspended from it by the bag and hanging loosely in the water. Within the lower vessel (in the centre of its bottom) a valve opening upwards admitted the water, and on the top or crown of the upper vessel, another valve, also opening upwards, was placed. Over the last valve the base of

322

Extract from Harris's History of Inventers.

[Book III. the jet pipe was secured. To work this machine, the rim of the lower vessel was connected at opposite points, by two iron rods or slings and a cross head, to the end of a lever, by which the lower vessel was moved up and down-compressing the bag when raised, and stretching it to its natural length when lowered; like the lantern bellows No. 105, or the bellows pump No. 106. To make the vessel rise and fall perpendicularly, the two rods were passed through holes in the plank. Water was kept in the cistern as high as the plank; so that when the movable vessel was raised the contents of the bag would be forced into the upper vessel and expelled through the jet pipe, and when it was again lowered, the water would enter through its valve and fill both as before. These engines, he observes, had sometimes two levers and were worked by two men, 66 the lower brasse [vessel] being poysed with two sweeps."

The goose-neck was used in England at this time. It is not represented in the figures, which are very indifferently executed, but is sufficiently well defined in the description of one of the engines. The author directs a hollow ball to be placed on the orifice of the forcing pipe, having a [jet] pipe at the top of it, and made to screw another pipe [elbow] upon it, to direct the water to any place."

66

Small or hand engines continued to be employed in London in the 18th century. This appears from a law passed in the 6th year of Queen Anne's reign, by which it was enacted that "each parish shall keep a large engine, and an hand engine, and a leather pipe, and socket of the same size as the plug or fire cock, [of the water mains,] that the socket may be put into the pipe to convey the water clear to the engine," under a penalty of ten pounds. In case of a fire, the first person who arrived with a parish engine to extinguish it was entitled to thirty shillings-the second twenty, and the third ten, provided the engines were in good order, "with a socket or hose, or leather pipe." The following year, the owners or keepers of "other large engines," (not parish engines,) were entitled to the same reward upon arriving with them and assisting in extinguishing a fire.

It is a singular proof of the general ignorance of hydraulic machinery, or want of enterprise in London pump makers of the 16th and 17th centuries, that they so long continued the use of "squirts" and engines with single cylinders, when they had daily before their eyes in the Thames Water-works examples of the advantages of combining two or more to one pipe. The application also of such machines as fire-engines was obviously enough shown to them; for when Maurice had finished his labors in 1582, the mayor and aldermen went to witness an experiment with his pumps at London bridge: "and they saw him throw the water over Saint Magnus's steeple, before which time [says Stow] no such thing was known in England as this raising of water." Immediately subsequent to the above date, the " squirt" manufacturers might surely have imitated Maurice's machine, but they did not for nearly a hundred years afterwards; that is, not until such engines had been introduced a second time from Germany, and designed expressly to put out fires.

Before the improvements of Newsham and his contemporaries of the 18th century, some important additions would seem to have been made in England, since, previous to 1686 "the engine for extinguishing fire" was claimed as an English invention. This is stated in a small volume published that year in London by John Harris, and apparently edited by him. It is entitled "A pleasant and compendious history of the first inventers and instituters of the most famous arts, misteries, laws, customs and manners in the whole world, together with many other rarities and remarkable things rarely made known, and never before made public: to

Chap. 8. Large Engine made by Hautsch at Nuremberg, 1656. 323 which is added several curious inventions, peculiarly attributed to England and English men." We shall offer no apology for closing this chapter with the following abstract, although the concluding part only refers to our subject. Fine Spanish needles were first made in England by a Negro in Cheapside, who refused to communicate his art; but in the eighth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, Elias Corous, a German, made it known to the English. About the fifth year of Queen Elizabeth, the way of making pins was found out by the English, which before were brought in by strangers to the value of 60,000 pound a year. Watches were the invention of a German, and the invention brought into England Anno 1580. The famous inventers and improvers were Cornelius Van Dreble and Janus Torrianellus. The first clocks were brought into England much about the same time. Chaines for watches are said to be the invention of Mr. Tomackee. The engine for clock wheels is an English invention of about one hundred years standing, as likewise that for the speedy cutting down wheels for watches. Other late inventions there are, to whom as their inventers the English lay claime, as an engine for raising glass, an engine for spinning glass, an engine for cutting tobacco, the rouling press, the art of damasking linnen, and watering of silks, the way of separating' gold from silver and brass, boulting mills, making caine chairs, the curious art of colouring and marbling books, making of horn ware, and the engine to extinguish fire, and the like."

CHAPTER VIII.

FIRE-ENGINES Continued: Engines by Hautsch-Nuremberg-Fire-engines at Strasbourg and Ypres -Coupling screws-Old engine with air chamber-Canvas and leather hose and Dutch engines-Eugines of Perier and Leopold-Old English engines-Newsham's engines-Modern French engine-Air chambers-Table of the height of jets-Modes of working fire-engines-Engines worked by steam. FIRE ENGINES IN AMERICA: Regulations respecting fires in New Amsterdam-Proclamations of Governor Stuyvesant-Extracts from old minutes of the Common Council-First fire-engines-Philadelphia and New-York engines--Riveted hose-Steam fire-engines now being constructed. Devices to extinguish fire without engines-Water bombs-Protecting buildings from fire-Fire escapes-Couvre feu-curfew bells Measuring time with candles-Ancient laws respecting fires and incendiaries-The dress in which Roman incendiaries were burnt retained in the auto da fe.

THE fire-engine mentioned in the previous chapter, which Schottus witnessed in operation at Nuremberg in 1656, appears to have been equal to any modern one in the effects ascribed to it, since it forced a column of water, an inch in diameter, to an elevation of eighty feet. One German author says a hundred feet. It was made by John Hautsch, who, like most of the old inventors, endeavored to keep the construction of his machine a secret. He refused to allow Schottus to examine its interior; though the latter it is said readily conceived the arrangement, and from his account it has been supposed the cylinders were placed in a horizontal position. The cistern that contained the pumps was eight feet long, two in breadth, and four deep; it stood on a sled ten feet in length and four in width, and the whole was drawn by two horses. The levers were so arranged that twenty-eight men could be employed in working them. The manufacture of these engines was continued by George Hautsch, the son, who is supposed to have made improvements in them, as some writers ascribe the invention of fire-engines to him.

324

Strasbourg Fire-Engine.

[Book III. In the 16th century no place could have furnished equal facilities with Nuremberg for the fabrication of, and making experiments with, hydraulic machines. It was at that time the Birmingham of Europe. "Nuremberg brass" was celebrated for ages. Its mechanics were so numerous that, for fear of tumults, they were not allowed to assemble in public "except at worship, weddings and funerals." No other place, observes an old writer, had " so great a number of curious workmen in all metals." The Hautschs seem to have been favorites with the genius of invention that presided over the city; an aptitude for and an inclination to pursue mechanical researches were inherited by the family. From a remark of Dr. Agricola of Ratisbon, in his curious work on Gardening, we learn that one of them did not confine himself to devices for throwing streams of water into the air; for he contrived a machine by means of which he intended to raise himself into the upper regions. "What can be more ridiculous [exclaims the author just named] than the art of flying, sailing or swimming in the air? Yet we find there have been some who have practiced it, particularly one Hautsch of Nuremberg, who is much spoken of for his flying engine. In the mean time it is well for the world that these attempts have not succeeded; for how should we seize malefactors? They would fly over the walls of towns like Apelles Vocales, who they tell us saved himself by flying over the walls of Nuremberg, and the print of whose feet is there shown to strangers to this day." The art of flying was a standard subject with Nuremberg mechanics for centuries, and several curious results are recorded, but perhaps nothing more so than the above objection to it.

No. 145., Fire-engine belonging to Strasbourg, A. D. 1739.

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 very similar to those described by Belidor, as employed in France in his time. They consisted simply of two pumps 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. Nos. 145 and 146 will convey a pretty correct idea of them during the early part of the 18th century. The former belonged to Strasbourg, the latter to Ypres.

Chap. 8.]

Fire-Engine at Ypres.

325

The front part of the cistern in which the pumps are fixed, is separated by a perforated board from the hinder 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 sepa rate lever, A A; 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 jet, 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. The contrivance for changing the direction of the jet was very defective, and considering the date of this engine it is surprising that such a one was then in use. A short leathern pipe would have been much better. It will be perceived that the jet pipe is connected to the perpendicular or fixed one by a single elbow, instead of a double one, like the ordinary goose-neck. The joints were also made differently. The short elbow piece had a collar or ring round each end, and the jet and perpendicular pipes, where they were united to the elbow, the same. The faces of these collars were made smooth, so as to fit close to and at the same time turn on each other: loose flanches on the pipes were bolted to others on the elbow, and thus drew the collars together so as to prevent water from leaking through. Now it will be seen that although the joint which unites the elbow to the perpendicular pipe would allow the jet pipe to be turned in a lateral or horizontal direction, there appears no provision to raise or to lower it, and no apparent use at all for the other joint. We were at first at a loss to divine how the stream could be directed up and down as occasions might require, for Belidor has not explained it; but on examining more closely the figure in his work, we found that the jet pipe itself was not straight, but bent near its junction with the elbow: this dissolved the mystery, for it was then obvious that by twisting this pipe round in its joint, its smaller orifice could be inclined up or down at pleasure. This very imperfect device is also shown in the next figure, the jet pipe heing curved through its whole length, instead of a single bend as in the last one.

The

pumps of this engine are substantially the same as those of the last, but the piston rods are moved by a short vibrating beam placed directly