KENT, Conn.—The New England States Veteran Fireman’s League returned to Kent last weekend for the second annual Firefighters’ Muster held at the Connecticut Antique Machinery Association campus.
Members brought with them eight Class A and Class B antique fire engines—frequently termed “handtubs”—that ranged in age from 1828 through 1883. The class of an engine is determined by the size of its cylinders, and each machine is allowed 15 minutes on the pumping platform to shoot as many streams of water as their crews can manage.
Crews last weekend were formed of League members, local firefighters and even bystanders who pumped frantically to see which handtub could shoot a stream of water the furthest. Winning scores are awarded to the machine that propels a spot of water the size of a dime the farthest distance as measured on a red resin paper playing field.
Team captains closely eyed pennants blowing in the breeze to determine the optimal wind direction, waiting as long as possible for the wind to blow away from the engine.
Last Saturday, the Class A engine winner was Protection 1, an 1865 engine from Newbury, Mass., which propelled its stream 196 feet, 3.5 inches. The Class B winner was T.W. Lane, an 1883 engine out of Mystic, Conn., which shot a stream 195 feet, 7 inches.
The Hancock, built in 1828 and the oldest engine on the field, managed only 163 feet, 4 inches, but retains the all-time record for a Class B engine, having reached a distance of 283 feet, 8 inches at a muster in Salisbury, Mass. in 1981.
League member Steve Young of Ashburnham, Mass., said the Hancock has been rebuilt a couple of times and “probably needs it again.”
As the teams of 12 to 15 men and women energetically pumped the brakes to push water through a two-inch hose, one had to reflect on how effective their efforts could have been against fires that were consuming early wood-framed structures that were devoid of fire-retardant materials.
A 19th-century handtub weighs roughly 1,500 to 3,000 pounds, according to Young. Only five to six feet long, handtubs were built to be pulled by humans rather than horses and their compact, four-wheeled wooden chassis were highly maneuverable through narrow streets.
Crews, using immense physical effort, could shoot 75 to 250 gallons of water per minute. A smaller unit might only need 10 to 12 men, but a larger engine, operating at full capacity, required a crew of 40 to 60 men. The men worked in rotating shifts, jumping in and out of the line to avoid total exhaustion.
According to Young, a man can pump for only about half a minute at full speed. Tank used at musters empty in about 15 minutes, but in actual use, volunteers ran back and forth constantly to provide more water from wells, ponds or cisterns.
By comparison, the average 21st-century municipal pumper measures 30 to 40 feet in length and is eight to nine feet in width. Fully loaded with equipment, water and crew, it typically weighs between 38,000 and 55,000 pounds and carries 500 to 1,000 gallons of water. Depending on the hose size, it empties in under 10 minutes. For continuing sources of water, fire companies connect to hydrants or ferry water from ponds, streams or other sources.
The New England States Veterans Firemen’s League was formed in 1890 and brings together volunteer fire associations from across Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut. Members attend seven or eight musters in a region that stretches of northern Maine to the foothills of the Berkshires, according to Don Oliveira of Newbury, Mass.
