This is a new reprint of the chapter on steam fire engines from the 1922 edition of the Audels Engineers and Mechanics Guide No. 2. As is usual with all Audel's material, this chapter is richly illustrated, with 28 excellent drawings and photographs of various fire engine components.
All the contents of the chapter were scanned and the pictures were carefully edited and enhanced digitally. A number of the illustrations are 20% larger than they were in the originals. The text has been retained in its entirety, with the following change. In the original, the text of the captions and notes was in a very small font and rather difficult to read. In this reprint, four lengthy picture captions and one lengthy note have been incorporated into the main body of the text, making the whole much more readable. The remaining captions and notes have been rendered in a larger, more legible font, also.
Reading this quick, little gem will definitely take you back to the days when fire departments were transitioning from horse-drawn steam fire engines to self-propelled units. There’s a “Table of Effective Fire Streams” that will give you vertical height in feet, horizontal distance in feet, and gallons discharged per minute, for six different hydrant pressures for each of six different nozzle sizes. You get directions for how to select, keep, and lay kindling to start a fire in the boiler before feeding some coal. You’ll get a little bit of insight into the problem of settling on standards for hose couplings, what with the National Board of Fire Underwriters, American Water Works Association, New England Water Works Association, National Fireman's Association, and National Fire Protection Association, not to mention some of the largest municipal fire departments in different regions of the country. You will get a very concise, pungent and entirely practical explanation of why fire engines must be kept immaculately clean. Or how about this: “After every working, and while the parts are still warm, pour a small cup of good cylinder oil into each of the oil cups on the top heads of the engines…” You’re going to have to get a copy to find out why!
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