Fire Engine History

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The first full time department, in western culture, might have been in Rome some 2000 years ago. They were not exactly a paid department. The first American volunteer fire department company is often credited to Ben Franklin, in 1735, in Philadelphia. In the mid-1800s, hand-operated pumps were replaced by horse-drawn steam pumpers. Franklin noted in his own newspaper, in 1735, that Boston had “a club or society of active men belonging to each fire engine, whose business is to attend all fires with whenever they happen.
Over a hundred years ago, the Fire mark was a round iron, copper or lead emblem that was usually placed on the wall. The earliest fire mark may have been created soon after the Great Fire of London in 1666. At one time, on just about every street corner, there was a fire alarm pull box. All of these boxes were connected to the telegraph wire. Many of the fire departments referred to as the “Joker Box System” or telegraph alarm system. …show more content…

The first self propelled steam engine pumper was built in New York in 1841. In 1853, Alexander Bonner Latta invented the first practical fire engine. Steam powered fire engines were still in use here and there, up until the 1920 motorized fire trucks became more common by 1910. From 1911, Mack Trucks began producing fire trucks, slowly becoming the most famous manufacturer in this field. In 1911 their was a fire in a ten-story building, the building was used for manufacturing clothing and claimed the lives of 146 employees and were mostly young women who leaped to their death. They thought this building was fireproof but it was

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