The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1890-01-19
RELICS OF BYGONE DAYS.
History of All the Steamers
in the Department.
Most New Twenty
five Years Ago.
TWO FEW PAID FIREMEN.

iC hdoCA1tCAAS VI t<AAC4 vi VIC r lie 1C-
partment Farrier before the Board OF
Finance some days ago that some of the
fire engines, on which the property owners
of Jersey City rely for the preservation OF
their property, were in condition of dill
apidation that practically left whole dis
tricts Of the city unprotected in case OF
fire, led THE SUNDAY MORNING News to
institute an investigation into the ma
terial and equipment that the Fire De.
partment has at its command to meet the
sudden emergency that might arise IN
case it is confronted with really formid-
able fire.
With this purpose In view the several
engine houses in the city were visited,
and the history and capacity of the engine
that each company has at its command
was ascertained.
IT the service is really seriously defective
III the mechanical equipment it can COM
mand, It Is more thoroughly crippled from
the lack of an adequate force of men with
winch TO man the machines. In case a
really large fire, that had gained rapid
Roadway was to be handled, its prompt
and effective subsection at certain hours
of the day would be seriously retarded.
Each OF the eleven engine houses in the
city are manned with force of four men
to handle the fire engine and hose car
rage with which every company is pro-
yided. During six hours of nine days
out of ten the force is reduced by absences
from the engine house of q portion of the
force for meals, to two men; and as each
man IS granted days furlough every ten
days, the length OF time on those days
when the actual available force is re-
duced to two men is increased TO nine
hours.
OF course each company is entitled to
the assistance of seven additional men
under the buffalo system of employ
ment. But as the presence of these latter
Is not compulsory, and as the compensa-
ton for their full service is small and is
based on an attendance at but sixty per
cent. OF all the fires occurring, their pres
ence in great and sudden emergencies is
not always to be relied on.
AS the successful handling of fire is
largely dependent on the rapidity with
which the streams are brought to bear on
the burning structure, this lack of ade
quate aid at vital stage may prove
singularly disastrous.
PAYMENTS INJURE THEM.
The majority of the engines owned by
the city were made by the Amoskeag
Manufacturing Company, at Amoskeag,
\. H., and are first, second and third
class machines. This classification is
merely trade rating that indicates the
power possessed.
Most of them are handsome machines
with vertical action, and are mounted
on ponGerous running gear. Heavy as it
is, however, the machinery is frequently
badly racked in The rapid passage of the
engines over the execrable pavements of
some OF the streets of the city.
OF the eleven engines now in active
service, seven are the relics of the old
Volunteer Fire Department and come to
the present personnel of the force as
ancient reminders OF the days when the
fire laddies went on ''hurrah" and to a
fire in the same spirit of bubbling energy.
OF this contingent of the present equip
ment, the old third class Clapp q Jones
engine, which is now No. 9, and stationed
at the corner of Bergen and Duncan
avenues, from which point it makes
rafting incursions into the outlying dis
tricts as far as Greenville, has the dis
tinction of being the Ancient 1t has
lived to the good old age of twenty-five
years, having been built at Hudson,
N. Y, in 1855.
In 1874 j. N. Dennisson, who was then
a machinist at Newark, rejuvenated the
old machine by putting new boiler in.
The fact that she was known in the old
volunteer days as Liberty No. ~ would
indicate that she was something of free
lance.
1T GUARDS LAFAYETTE.
The engine that completes with No.
for the honor of seniority was built at
Amoskeag, at the works where the ma
jority of the departments machines were
built. in 1867, and is the third class en-.
CINE known in the present service as No.
10. This one was built four years before
the organization of the department. 1t
was known as No. 10 in 1887, but at that
date was transferred to its present loca-
ton at Halliday street and Communipaw
avenue, and at present is grim old SER
yitor to Lafayette. No. 10 was known in
the unorganized service as Washington
No. a., and defends its claim to being the
oldest engine III the service in opposition
to the claim of No. 9, mainly on the CON
tention that Washington came before
liberty
In 1884 machinist. named Leslers. re-
newed its youth by putting in the custo-
mary new boiler. And with the insertion
OF another boiler the old engine may sue
coed in heating old Ponce de Leon by
finding the long-sought-for Spring OF
Eternal Youth.
One OF the most effective little engines
IN the service for use at small inside fires
where The drowning element is likely TO
90 more damage than the consuming one
Is tne Champion Chemical engine known
IN the Department as No. 4, and stationed
on First street near Coles With its two
TORY gallon tanks of chemical mixture it
can so into room or store where small
nre mas started, and put it out with more
expedition and less damage than a first
class engine that can throw a stream of
water height of two hundred feet in the
air. ID
In an unpreteatibus, temporary wooden
shed, near the corner of Morgan street,
on Warren, and surrounded by the RAM
ahaekle old buildings which characterize
the lower portions or the city, is stationed
the newest engine in the service. Guard
ed oy the customary two men, the new
second class Amoskeag machine, with its
compact and complicated machinery is
waiting for the completion of new en-
CINE house
OLD But STILL HERE
TWO other third-class Amoskeag ma
cEines, which were first ushered into SER
vice before the present department was
organized, are the old Franklin No. and
Columbia No 5, which did dnty in the
IAs1ay days ia old Bergen City. Franklin
~ has had its title changed, aud Is now
a sa4s& as No. 8, and is stationed on Egge
ha.e near the corner Of Ocean avenue.
Iiot efchine was built at Amoskeag in
hx$in February, 1882. the Dennis
nlacturing COMPANY Of Read
Il corporation which was the
I fhof j. N. Uennisson. OF New
' Iii noxF boijAr in Eor <1ln liz