Transcript
Clay: Hi, this is Clay Edmunds. I am the Site Administrator and Lead Interpreter at the Old Stone Fort Museum. And today I will share the history and journey of one of the oldest fire engines in the country. Now this fire engine is on display at our museum and has been with us since 1889, making it one of our first collections.
The name of this engine is the Deluge Number One. And it was made by Richard Newsham in London, England, around 1731. The Deluge made its journey to New York City along with a similar smaller engine in 1731, it often took around 40 people or so to operate this machine in total when you consider that you needed a bucket brigade to constantly fill the machine with water. They were not able to get horses to go near the fire so people also had to pull it and you could just imagine how heavy this thing would be being able to hold over 170 gallons of water.
Now multiple people would get on each side and pump it up and down to fuel this water to shoot out of the hose. Now what I find to be particularly interesting is that this engine was in use for about 154 years. It went through some renovations at some point. The wheels were replaced by smaller wheels to prevent chafing on the wood. Now this engine was used by New York City until 1797 when it was moved to Schenectady. And it was used in Schenectady until 1815 when it moved to the town of Esperance, which is just north of where we are in Schoharie.
Now Esperance retired this engine in 1885, and they donated it to us just four years later, 1889 is when we’ve had it ever since. At this point, the platform that was used for people to stand on the engine is no longer here. But other than that, it’s pretty much everything else is as it was from when we got it. Anyway, that is the story of the Deluge. Thanks for listening.