Modern Englüh Engines.

335

Chap. 8.]

No. 151 is an external view of one of Newsham’s engines at the timeof his death, as drawn by Mr. Labelye, the engineer of Westminsterbridge, and inserted by Desaguliers in the second volume of his Philoso-phy, in 1744. Its general appearance is far inferior to modern ones, butthe essential parts—the pumps—were equal to those now used. Thestrong iron shaft by which the pistons were raised and depressed wascontinued along the top of the cistern, and to it the levers were securedas at present; but in addition to the levers, sectors, Iike those that movedthe pistons, were also fastened to it—portions of two of these are shown inthe cut, and there were two others near the upright case : to their upperparts, two long Strips of plank, or treddles, were suspended by shortchains, and on these planks, six men, who stood upon the cistern andheld by the hand rails, alternately threw their weight; first on the tred-dle on one side of the carriage, and then on the other, and thus aided theBremen at the levers in working the engine. The box or trough, with agrate within it, at the end of the cistern, was for the purpose of emptyingbuckets of water to supply the pumps, when the suction pipe (figured be- Blow it) was not used. The small flap on the end of the upright case co-vered printed directions how to use and keep the engine in Order.

If the section, No. 150, be compared with English engines in previoususe, one of which is figured at No. 149, it will be seen at a glance howgreat were the improvements that Newsham introduced. Independentlyof the three most original of his contributions—the sectors and chains—treddles—and working the pumps with long staves at the sides of the 4[carriage instead of short ones at the ends—the whole machine was im-proved more or less in every part. To keep the cistern and levers as lowas possible, the carriage was placed on bent axles. He introduced andimproved the three-way cock, and the goose-neck was perfected in hishands ; the elbows being jointed to each other by very fine screws. De-saguliers thought that no part of the engine could be altered for the bet-ter. A writer in the London Magazine for 1752, (page 395,) says thatNewsham in these machines gave “ a nobler present to his country thanif he had added provinces to Great Britain.” Their merits were gene-rally acknowledged : he received Orders for them from various parts ofEurope , and it will be seen in a subsequent part of this chapter that thosefirst used in this city were made by him.

The celebrity his engines acquired had a blightmg effect on other ma-nufacturers—like Aaron’s rod swallowing up those of his competitors.His engines were purehased for the use of the parishes throughout thecountry generally, and also by the various insurance Companies, which,unlike ours, are at the sole expense of extinguishing fires, and of provid-ing the means to effect it. Every insurance Company in English citieskeeps in its pay a number of firemen to take charge of and work its ownengines. Two horses are attached to each engine to draw it to andfrom fires. The height of the jet from Newsham’s engines was aboutfifty feet. He mentions in his circular having thrown it to an elevationoififty-five yards, but he was certainly mistaken.

Several improvements have been made in English fire-engines sinceNewsham’s time, but they are chiefly confined to the carriage, and to de-tails and arrangements of the various parts. Treddles are dispensed with,and the carriages are made longer, so that a greater number of men canbe employed in working them. They resemble American engines soclosely, that a separate figure of a modern English engine is unnecessary.The reader is therefore referredto No. 154. Others on the principle of thesemi-rotary pump, (No. 140,) are also used to a limited extent in London .