One of the old time machines is said to
consist of a huge tank of water placed upon wheels, drawn by a large
number of men, and to which was attached a small hose. When the water
in the tank became exhausted it was supplied by a bucket brigade,
something on the plan in use at the present time in villages not able
to support an engine.
The oldest record of a fire engine in Paris was one used in the king's
library in 1684, which, having but one cylinder, threw water to a
great height, a result obtained by the use of an air chamber. Leather
hose was introduced into Amsterdam in 1670, by two Dutchmen, and they
also invented the suction pipe at about the same period. About the
close of the seventeenth century an improved engine was patented in
England. It was a strong cistern of oak placed upon wheels, furnished
with a pump, an air chamber and a suction pipe of strong leather,
through which run a spiral piece of metal. This engine was little
improved until the early part of the last century.
In the United States bucket fire departments were organized in most of
the cities in the early part of the last century, and hand engines,
used by the old volunteer firemen, did not come into general use until
about fifty years later.
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