by Museum Admin | Dec 10, 2019
The earliest motorized American fire engines, which appeared around 1910, used an engine called the T-Head: a single row of four to six pistons were cast in sets of two in the shape of a large “T”. One side of the T contained valves for the fuel intake, and the... 
by Museum Admin | Dec 10, 2019
The famous auto maker and racer also built fire engines. Stutz began his fire engine business in Indianapolis in 1919 and built engines and ladder trucks until the Crash of 1929. This rig was his smallest model. The town of Havre de Grace, Maryland bought it in... 
by Museum Admin | Dec 10, 2019
This engine was delivered to the Volunteer Fire Department of Pullman, Washington, where it was in first line service until 1961, when it was placed out of service and sold to a retired Pullman firefighter. He used it in parades for about thirty years. It was sold... 
by Museum Admin | Dec 9, 2019
Rural communities purchased rigs like this for use by their fire departments. Built on a Ford chassis with the famous “flat head” V-8 engine, with a hose bed, booster tank and pump by the Pirsch Fire Apparatus Company, the rig was both capable and affordable. It... 
by Museum Admin | Dec 9, 2019
The town of Staunton, Virginia maintained this rig in its original condition. It was a very advanced design — America’s first entirely hydraulically powered aerial with a metal ladder and hydraulic outriggers. It also had Seagrave’s powerful 250 horsepower...