The Fire! Fire! exhibition at the Museum of London has presented a unique opportunity to research and restore one of the capital’s earliest surviving fire engines, which was made shortly after the events of 1666.
We knew from a 19th-century photograph that the engine originally comprised a large water-barrel with a pump and pumping arms mounted on top of a wheeled carriage.
However, the only part that had survived was the barrel with the pump inside; on its own, a very difficult object to interpret. It had also been on display in the museum for many decades.
Fundraising for research is a difficult necessity, but luckily there were grant bodies that liked our proposal, particularly because it included science, history, craft and sustainability with a tangible public access outcome.
Croford Coachbuilders in Ashford undertook the accurate reconstruction work. Having set out a detailed brief for them, they began making the missing area of the engine using traditional techniques and materials. The wheels, for example, were made out of elm for the hub, oak for the spokes, ash for the felloes, then hot-tyred with iron.
The true test of their skills came when the wheeled undercarriage and pump arms were attached to, and around, the original barrel at the museum; it was within a millimetre perfect.
The experimental research could then begin. The piece was moved and manoeuvred and the internal pumping mechanism investigated.
I concluded that it would have been extremely difficult to move the heavy engine around the narrow streets of London, even more so when full of water. Furthermore, the pumping mechanism is so inefficient that it is unlikely it would have put out anything more than a small fire in close proximity to the engine!
Robert Payton recently retired from his job as the head of conservation and collection care at the Museum of London. Fire! Fire! runs until 17 April 2017
We knew from a 19th-century photograph that the engine originally comprised a large water-barrel with a pump and pumping arms mounted on top of a wheeled carriage.
However, the only part that had survived was the barrel with the pump inside; on its own, a very difficult object to interpret. It had also been on display in the museum for many decades.
Fundraising for research is a difficult necessity, but luckily there were grant bodies that liked our proposal, particularly because it included science, history, craft and sustainability with a tangible public access outcome.
Croford Coachbuilders in Ashford undertook the accurate reconstruction work. Having set out a detailed brief for them, they began making the missing area of the engine using traditional techniques and materials. The wheels, for example, were made out of elm for the hub, oak for the spokes, ash for the felloes, then hot-tyred with iron.
The true test of their skills came when the wheeled undercarriage and pump arms were attached to, and around, the original barrel at the museum; it was within a millimetre perfect.
The experimental research could then begin. The piece was moved and manoeuvred and the internal pumping mechanism investigated.
I concluded that it would have been extremely difficult to move the heavy engine around the narrow streets of London, even more so when full of water. Furthermore, the pumping mechanism is so inefficient that it is unlikely it would have put out anything more than a small fire in close proximity to the engine!
Robert Payton recently retired from his job as the head of conservation and collection care at the Museum of London. Fire! Fire! runs until 17 April 2017
