Modern steam fire engines are classified as to “size,” as “double extra first,” etc.; their capacities and weights are given approximately in the following
===================+========================+=============== SIZE OF ENGINES. | CAPACITY. | WEIGHT. -------------------+------------------------+--------------- Double Extra First | 1,300 gallons per min. | 10,800 pounds. Extra First | 1,100 gallons per min. | 9,800 pounds. First | 900 gallons per min. | 8,800 pounds. Second | 700 gallons per min. | 7,800 pounds. Third | 600 gallons per min. | 6,800 pounds. Fourth | 500 gallons per min. | 5,800 pounds. Fifth | 400 gallons per min. | 4,800 pounds. -------------------+------------------------+---------------
The foregoing list of the sizes, capacities, etc., of the fire apparatus now in general use, affords a very good comparison between it and that which has, little by little, progressed for two thousand years to its present high plane. _The application of electric power to the operation of the pumps_ and the propulsion of the apparatus is yet in too elementary a stage for present discussion in a work of this scope for—
It is essential that the machinery relied upon for fire protection should at all times be ready for instantaneous and effective service; this, because both life and vast property interests are at stake, _hence of all machines made, the modern steam fire engine is produced with a niceness of finish and accuracy of fit equaled by no other_, when size is considered; it approaches towards the perfection seen in the mechanism of a fine watch.
This degree of excellence has been arrived at by successive steps. The illustration on page 92, Fig. 388 exhibits the fire-fighting tools of the early Romans and similar apparatus was used in England as late as the fifteenth century. The implements shown are a syringe, a sledge hammer, two fire hooks and three leathern buckets conveniently arranged against a wall. _The owners of houses or chimneys that took fire were fined_; and men were appointed to watch for fires and give the alarm. In 1472 a night bellman was employed in Exeter to alarm the inhabitants in case of fire, and in 1558, leathern buckets, ladders and crooks, were ordered to be provided for the same city; no application of the pump seems to have been then thought of.