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Samuel Phillips of Blackfriers Bridge, London, was a renowned maker of fire engines from 1760 – 1797. His fire engines’ design was similar in nature to those of Richard Newsham, who was also from London. Both Phillips and Newsham lived at a time when fires were extremely dangerous, with blazes spreading from house to house, destroying entire towns and cities due to the lack of preparation and prevention measures.
This particular Samuel Phillips engine has twin single-acting pumps, which would draw water either from the wooden reservoir tank (fueled by a bucket brigade) or by an external supply via hose connection. Multiple men would work the cross handles, driving the piston and producing pressure to spray water through a gooseneck nozzle attached to the top of the apparatus.
This manual fire engine was purchased from Vintage Vehicle Restoration of Harleysville, Pennsylvania, and joined the collection at Koorsen Museum in August 2020.
