Pumper, Horse-Drawn Hand

Description

Hand- or horse-drawn fire engine painted dark green. Carriage built on a flat oak and ash plank frame, resting below the pivoting front axle shaft and rear axle shaft. The frame supports a central rectangular reservoir of pine with dovetailed corners. Box interior painted blue. Within the box is the two piston pump mechanism made of copper alloy with ferrous metal fasteners and active internal parts. Leather gaskets and washers. The copper alloy sections appear to be lead soldered with repairs to the proper left nozzle arm. A forged iron beam activates the pump, and extends beyond the front and back of the carriage to a total length of approximately 13'. The ends of the beam split to form extended arms, fitted at their ends with forged rings to hold a round, tapered wooden shaft used as the pumping handle. A hose and nozzle would pass through holes cut into the wooden hoseman's platform, which is mounted directly above the pump and reservoir. The axles, spokes, and felloes are made of a ring porous hardwood, possibly oak or ash. The wheel hubs are coated with paint, but are most likely elm.

Notes

The size of wood-framed Shaker buildings made the threat of fire and the difficulty of fighting a fire of great concern to the Shakers. On April 6, 1822, the Shakers at Canterbury made their first trial of this horse-drawn hand pumper. Construction of the pumper was directed by Thomas Corbett (1780-1857), who was also the family's physician. The pumper, according to Emma B. King, "required the help of twenty-four men to run it," and "would send a half-inch stream some sixty feet. With much less help in 1838 it threw a stream over the belfry of the [four story] dwelling. Originally the water tank from which the stream of water was pumped was filled by a bucket brigade, but sometime after 1838 a suction pump was added to keep the water tank filled. The hose men stood atop the platform and directed the stream of water through the hose, the first made of leather and after 1860 made of hemp. A 1906 photograph by Levine & Hayes, Boston (noc6230) records a rare expression of Shaker pride as the 1822 pumper was paraded down a public thoroughfare. The pride the Shakers felt in Corbett's design is apparently well deserved, for as early as August 1822, Nathan Smith, founder of the Yale Medical School, wrote that while visiting the Shakers at Canterbury he had seen the pumper throw water 29 feet, farther than the pumper used by the town of Concord. He estimated that the pumper could be built for $300.