september31913

maravillosa foto un gran saludo

Too bad those men stood in the way . . . .

In 1913, the International Association of Fire Engineers (now the International Association of Fire Chiefs) held their 41st annual conference in New York City. One component of the event was a competition for the newly developed motorized pumper. On September 3 at 6:30 a.m., the 12-hour pump test began with 11 pieces of apparatus competing. A length of hard suction hose was used by each engine to draft water from the Hudson River. Overall performance of the equipment was determined by using a point system. The motor had to remaining running during the complete 12-hour test period. Apparatus from the following companies began the event. Ahrens-Fox American LaFrance - Two units Knox Luietweiler Nott - Two units Robinson - Two units Seagrave Waterous Eight of the engines completed the test. The Luietweiler, one Nott and one Robinson failed. The Ahrens-Fox earned the highest score. In addition to this information, I have added a few notes to some of the other photos in this grouping. In this photo: Firefighters pose before a steam fire engine. I want that eagle and the bell!

LOC -- date is wrong -- should read "1913"

Wystan, Thanks for the heads up on the date. We will correct it when we update the record.

William Jay Gaynor had served a term as reform mayor of New York. Because the incorruptible Gaynor would not cooperate with the Tammany machine, Tammany refused to nominate him for a second term. So Gaynor was renominated by an independent group, and accepted their nomination. In this photo, the independents are on their way to notify Gaynor of the nomination, just before he sailed to Europe on a vacation voyage. On September 10, exactly a week after this photo was taken, Gaynor died of a heart attack, in his deck chair aboard the steamship Baltic, 400 miles off the coast of Ireland.

In 1913, the International Association of Fire Engineers (now the International Association of Fire Chiefs) held their 41st annual conference in New York City. One component of the event was a competition for the newly developed motorized pumper. On September 3 at 6:30 a.m., the 12-hour pump test began with 11 pieces of apparatus competing. A length of hard suction hose was used by each engine to draft water from the Hudson River. Overall performance of the equipment was determined by using a point system. The motor had to remaining running during the complete 12-hour test period. Apparatus from the following companies began the event. Ahrens-Fox American LaFrance - Two units Knox Luietweiler Nott - Two units Robinson - Two units Seagrave Waterous Eight of the engines completed the test. The Luietweiler, one Nott and one Robinson failed. The Ahrens-Fox earned the highest score. In addition to this information, I have added notes to the other photos in this grouping. In this photo: the Robinson engines are to the front with the Knox behind them.