page_title: Birdsill Holly
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Birdsill Holly / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Silsby steam fire engine
context_page_description: Birdsill Holly Jr. was a mechanical engineer and inventor of water hydraulics devices. He is known for inventing mechanical devices that improved city water systems and firefighting. He patented an improved fire hydrant that is similar to those used currently. Holly was a co-inventor of the Silsby steam fire engine. He founded the Holly Manufacturing Company that developed into the larger Holly Steam Combination Company that distributed heat from a central station and developed commercial district heating for cities in the United States and Canada.
context_section_description: Holly moved back to Seneca Falls in his early twenties and became one of the partners of a new firm called Silsby, Race and Holly in 1845. The firm manufactured hydraulic machinery and steam-powered fire engines. As the firm's visionary, Holly contributed significantly to their success. In 1849 he received his first patent, which was for a rotary water pump.
  Holly was a co-inventor of the Silsby steam fire engine, which was first produced in 1856. Over 1,000 were made, becoming the most popular steam fire engine built in the United States. The unconventional rotary motion steam-cylinder engine and pump were Holly's inventions (US39259A and US12350A). The first of these machines weighed up to 9,500 pounds and produced 60 pounds of steam pressure, enough to propel four streams of water over 200 feet. The greatest distance recorded for a stream was 364 feet on 24 September 1881 in Reading, Pennsylvania.
  Holly left Seneca Falls in 1851 for Lockport, New York, where he established the Holly Manufacturing Company in 1859 with the financial assistance of Washington Hunt and Thomas Flagler. The company produced sewing machines, cistern pumps, and rotary pumps. Holly built the Lockport Fire Protection and Water System in 1863, which used pumps powered by water turbines and steam engines to bring water to hydrants in the city. His system was adopted by Covington, Kentucky, in 1871. He patented a fire hydrant in 1869 used for fire protection.
  Holly's inventions used pressure to pump water directly into the main city water supply lines, since there were no water towers at the time for pressure from a local water supply reservoir for drinking water and fire protection. The pumps ran at various speeds according to usage. It was regulated by the pressure in the discharge main. Holly's company facilities doubled when he built a similar system for the city of Lockport water works department. He applied his water works system equipment in over two thousand cities in the United States and Canada.
  Holly's system of pumping water into Lockport's city mains was unique. It not only supplied drinking water for domestic service, but also stored water under pressure for hydrants in a city fire protection service.  His technological innovations provided the impetus for similar city water works construction projects across the United States.
  Holly's interests switched from fire protection systems to central heating. He wondered if there was a more efficient way to heat several nearby buildings rather than using individual small boilers in each building. He set up an experimental steam heating system at his home in Lockport in 1876. Holly ran an underground pipe from his house to a steam boiler 500 feet away in the backyard. Through this wooden pipe he ran steam and found that there was little heat loss. He repeated the experiment with a 100-foot pipe to a neighbor's. The experiment was successful and he convinced others of the possibility of wide-scale central steam heating.
  Holly formed a company of investors interested in his steam concept of central heating with a capital of $25,000. He merged the new company with the Holly Manufacturing Company to establish the Holly Steam Combination Company in 1877. Its goals were to commercially distribute heat from a central station and develop district heating for towns and cities in Canada and the United States. Holly's district heating system used a large boiler at a central plant. This system provided steam to a group of town buildings in a surrounding city district through a circuit of insulated water pipes that distributed steam and returned it as water after being condensed. The pipes were insulated to reduce heat loss. The serviced buildings were metered with a steam quantity recorder invented by Holly. The consumer was charged for the heat consumed from the steam supply in accordance with coal comparison rates.
  Holly designed and invented all the necessary control regulators and measuring devices to run a heating system for a city district. He patented 150 inventions in his lifetime.  He was a frie
caption: Silsby steam fire engine in Brenham
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