FIRE-ENGINE (ante), some form or combination of forcing pumps for throwing a stream of water to extinguish a fire. A fire-engine with two pumps, and worked by levers or brakes, was invented in Egypt in the 2c1 c. B.C. For centuries the chief device for extinguishing fires was the hand syringe or "squirt." In England its use was dis continued for a long time, leathern buckets, ladders, and crooks taking its place; but was revived near the close of the 16th century. Specimens of the "hand-squirt" are still preserved in London as curiosities. It seems probable that a rude sort of engine was also used in London at a very early day. In Germany, huge syringes, mounted upon wheels, were in use in 1618. Paris had fire-engines of some sort at the :beginning of the 18th century. In England, in 1734, engines of various construction were manufactured, the most successful of which was that invented by Newsham. Two of his machines, the first invention of the kind ever used in this country, were introduced in New York in 1731. It was more than fifty years after this that the leather valves within the cylinders were superseded by metallic valves, placed in valve-chests apart from the cylinders and the air-chamber. and semi-rotary pumps were also introduced, and are still used to some extent in London. Floating fire-engines worked by hand were used on the Thames before the close of the 18th century. In some cases the mechanism that worked the pumps was used to move the paddle-wheels. It was not until 1850 that float ing fire-engines worked by steam came into use in England. An engine of this sort has done good service for years on the North and East rivers around New York. The first steam fire-engine is believed to be that made by Braithwaite in London in 1829. Ericsson
built one in New York, about 1840, similar to Braithwaite's; and Latta, in Cincinnati, produced, in 1850, the first machine which was practically useful. Cincinnati was the first city in the United States to organize a steam fire department, but other large cities and towns rapidly followed the example. The steam fire-engines now in use may be classified as having reciprocating pumps without fly-wheels, reciprocating pumps with fly-wheels, and as rotary engines. The Amoskeag company (Manchester, N. H.) builds a very effective engine, which by a simple addition is self-propelling; a pole may also be attached, that the machine may be drawn by horses. The fly-wheel shaft is provided with a pulley, from which a chain connection furnishes motive power to a larger pulley in the back driving-axle. The pulley on the fly-wheel shaft may be disconnected when the engine is pumping. On the road the engine is steered by a large wheel upon an upright shaft in front of the driver's scat; a pinion on the lower end of this shaft works in a horizontal gear-wheel, controls the front axle, and guides the machine. There is a differential gear by which one of the hind wheels may travel faster than the other when going round a curve. When standing in the engine-house, steam is maintained in a self-propelling engine, at about 80 lbs. ; in steam-engines drawn by horses, at about 51 lbs.; this is done by attachment to a stationary boiler in the engine-house, fuel being laid in the furnace of the engine, to be ignited when leaving the house. See FrnE.