Newsham Engine Essay

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Richard Newsham was an English inventor. In 1721 he took out an American patent for the first American fire engine pump. The Newsham Engine may have been the first fire pump in America, however it was not the first fire pump ever invented. The first fire pump was invented in Ancient Rome in the third century B.C. by Ctesibius of Alexander. It was used by The Vigiles which translates to watchmen of the city. They were basically the police and firemen of Ancient Rome. Unfortunately the Vigiles and the fire pump were forgotten with the fall of rome because of the ignorance and superstition of the Dark Ages. This technology was not rediscovered until the 16th century when the writings of Ancient Rome and Greece were translated. Still, their technology was not put to use until a full century later. It was not until the end of the seventeenth century that engineers began to perfect their craft . There were several manufactures producing fire engines by this time and Richard Newsham was one of them. His engines were gaining popularity over most of the other engines which were basically copies of the Dutch Engine. The Newsham Engine was a lot like a bathtub on wheels that would siphon water from its tub, and spray it out of a long gooseneck nozzle. A bucket brigade would run buckets of water to the apparatus and poor them into the tub while up to ten other men would pump it like a seesaw. This allowed the firefighters to keep a constant stream of water on the fire. Other fire engines of its time only provided intermittent streams. One of the biggest improvements made to the Newsham Engine was the addition of a siphon hose that would draw water from a local water source directly into its tub. This did away with the need for the bucket brigade. Some time after this invention, a new revolutionary technology emerged; the very first water system. Larger cites began
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