The modern pumper pictured above has an output of 1,500 gallons of water per minute, more than four times the pumping capacity of the Carillon Park steam fire engine. In addition, it carries 1,600 feet of hose.
A 275-horsepower motor provides instant and dependable power.
Another problem recalled by old-time residents of Sidney was the shower of sparks emitted when the engine was in use. Its operators were subjected to this fiery barrage at frequent intervals, with the result that coats and other items of clothing were often perforated by the red-hot cinders.
An anecdote which has survived along with the Henry Young concerns one hectic fire run during which the engine was almost wrecked. With the horses plunging ahead at full speed and the engine rounding a turn, one of its wheels hit a severe bump. For several long seconds, the engine careened wildly on two wheels. The thoroughly frightened driver sat paralyzed, even after the engine had righted, but the veteran fire horses headed unerringly toward the scene of the blaze. Proof that the horses really did find the fire, old-timers say, is that the driver was still immobilized at the end of the run, and had to be helped from his seat.
The Ahrens Manufacturing Company of Cincinnati, which built the Henry Young, was at one time the largest producer of steam fire engines in the Midwest. The ancestry of the Ahrens engines can be traced all the way back to Moses Latta, who accomplished what the world’s mechanical geniuses had hitherto failed to do by devising a boiler which not only generated a lot of steam but in addition produced the steam quickly. Once this milestone had been passed, the road to widespread and successful usage of steam fire engines broadened, and progress became correspondingly rapid.
The Ahrens firm had its start in 1868, having succeeded Lane & Bodley, the company that had bought Latta’s works. Ahrens was quick to make significant improvements. Whereas Lane & Bodley had built only seven or eight machines, depending on Latta’s patterns, Ahrens immediately introduced new designs which greatly increased the efficiency of the engines.
Ahrens engines were made in several sizes. The larger models had two cylinders and two pumps and were known as “double” engines. The smaller types had a single cylinder and a single pump. The Henry Young is a single-pump Ahrens, Size No. 2. Its steam cylinder has a diameter of nine inches and a stroke of nine inches; its pump cylinder has a five-and-a-half-inch bore and a nine-inch stroke. The engine weighs 5,800 pounds and can pump 350 gallons of water a minute.
The Old-Time Fire Bell
