Fire Engine Plate, "Hayes Fire Truck"
date: label: date made
content: ca 1878
name: label: maker
content: unknown
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: At the core of any fire company is the apparatus used to fight fires and protect lives. This was particularly true of for the volunteer fire fighters in 19th century America. Often purchased with their own funds, their fire engines were the focus of their pride and affection, as well as their identities as fire fighters. Engine plates, often made of brass, would be prominently affixed to engines and inscribed with the company name, number, and founding date. Engine plates could pass from old engine to new, or be kept in the firehouse as a memorial to a departed apparatus.
label: Description (Brief)
content: This brass engine plate belonged to the Hayes Fire Truck. Daniel D. Hayes was a machinist working for the San Francisco Fire department who developed and patented the first fire truck aerial ladder. Hayes and William Free received patent number 74,821 on February 25, 1868 for their improvement in fire-escape ladders that were “portable and capable of being rapidly raised to any desired angle between a horizontal and perpendicular without being removed from the truck” so that people could escape or the fire could be subdued. American LaFrance purchased the patent and manufactured the “Hayes Aerial” beginning in the early 1880's. The rectangular brass plate with scalloped edges has been painted brown with raised lettering painted gold that reads “HAYES FIRE TRUCK/PATENTED/ FEB’Y 25 1868 APRIL 9 1878/ REISSUED JUNE 17 1879.”
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States
topic: label: Subject
content: Fire Fighting
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Fire Fighting and Law Enforcement
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content: Cultures & Communities
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content: Work
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content: Firefighting Collection
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content: Fire Engine Plates
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of CIGNA Museum and Art Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2005.0233.0930
label: accession number
content: 2005.0233
label: catalog number
content: 2005.0233.0930
objectType: label: Object Name
content: plate, fire engine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 3/8 in x 8 3/8 in; 8.5725 cm x 21.2725 cm