Richard Newsham, inventor of the Newsham Fire Engine, was awarded his first patent for his creation in 1721. He aimed to improve the European water pump design and apply the science behind it to fight the fires that often raged through his home city. Even decades after the Great Fire of London, he still saw its effects, so he decided to create a machine to help fight fires and protect life and property around him. Soon, the Newsham Fire Engine dominated the English fire engine market.

At the scene of a fire, ten men operated the Newsham at once. Three men would be on either side of the handrails, pumping up and down while three more men stood atop the engine, using their feet in tandem with the hand pumpers. This activated a twin-cylinder pump in the top portion of the engine, and a jet of water shot out of a rigid metal pipe on top, controlled by the last engine operator.  

Water for the Newsham engine was transported primarily by bucket brigade, though it could occasionally be siphoned from a larger body of water such as a well, a river, or a lake.

At the height of operation, the Newsham could shoot between 60 and 100 gallons of water per minute, reaching a distance of over 135 feet. At a time when fires raged and solutions were few and far between, this invention revolutionized firefighting and allowed metropolitan areas in Europe and the United States to keep growing day after day.

In 1731, the first Newsham hand pumper crossed the Atlantic to the United States. Soon, the Newsham fire engine would protect life and property across Europe and the United States, and other inventors would be inspired to create their own designs for even more effective fire engines.