State Library of South Australia

Fire Pump [B 9663] • Photograph

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Summary

Manually operated fire pump. A newspaer clipping from the "Mail", December 1936 stuck to the back of the photograph says " A remarkably well-preserved relic of the early days of firefighting in South Australia - a manual fire-pump made in London in 1846 - will be part of the South Australian Fire Brigade's display in the Pageant of Progress on December 22 (1936). The chief officier of the brigade (Mr JJ Whyte) was searching for old appliances for the display which embraces the ancient and modern in fire fighting when he was told by an old-time fireman that the pump was at Yatala Labor Prison. Mr Whyte borrowed it and took it to headquarters. In the Pageant the pump, which looks more like a poison cart than anything will be drawn by four men. Records of when the pump was brought to South Australia, and of how long the pump was in service at Yatala are not available, but it is certain that the pump did duty many years ago when South Australia was still young. It is probable that it was used to fight Adelaide fires before going to Yatala, where it has been used this century. Yatala still has firefighting appliances, but these of course are modern. Mr Whyte said today that the pump would deliver about 30 gallons of water a minute if worked by 10 strong men from open water or a tank. The pump had a reciprocal action - one cylinder emptying it and the other filling. So well preserved was the machinery that he believed that if cleaned it would work even now. This type of pump was first used by the London Fire Brigade 145 years ago, added Mr Whyte. It had been the next development in firefighting from the syringes which were filled from leather water barrels and squirted on fires".

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Physical description

Photograph; 21 cm x 16 cm

Dates / Publication details

Approximately 1935

Collection

Part of General Collection

Subject

Fire engines -- South Australia

Catalogue record

Return to catalogue

Digitisation information

Date

24/11/2005

Format

image/tiff

Resolution

3,315 x 2,466 pixels (8.2 MP)

Size

24.56 MB

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