Abstract
IN a paper received from the Smithsonian Institution, a brief history is given of fire-fighting in America from colonial days to the present time. It starts with the days of the ‘bucket brigades'. Many of the earliest American communities required property owners to have fire buckets in their houses, which they had to throw into the street when a fire alarm was sounded. They were then picked up by the men who raced to the fire, and when the fire was extinguished these buckets were piled up on the village common, where the owners came to claim them. In an exhibition being held in the National Museum in Washington, many of these buckets are shown. They are made of leather, and in addition to the names of the owners are decorated with family devices and scenes of the time. The first hand-pumped fire engine or tub, made in 1740, is on exhibition; but the bucket brigades were still necessary in order to fill it with water. These tubs were pulled by hand, and at night runners went before them carrying torches or lanterns on sticks to light the way. Rival companies raced to a fire, and it was a sporting event which of them should be first there. Many incentives were offered to the companies, who sometimes did what they could to slow up their rivals. Cast iron plates were fixed to houses insured by those insurance companies paying bounties to fire-fighters who saved insured property. The fire-fighters were in great demand for parades and political rallies, and no celebration was complete without them. Next came the days of steam fire-engines pulled by horses, and then the motor fire-engine.
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History of Fire-Fighting in America. Nature 138, 197–198 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/138197d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/138197d0