From the Hall of Flame Museum
Phoenix, Arizona
NEWSHAM TRICENTENNIAL 1725 - 2025
Tricentennials don’t come along every day, especially in a young city like Phoenix. 2025 started out on January 7 reminding us of the destructive nature of fire, which just as true and tragic centuries ago in America and has always required community-wide effort. Here at the Hall of Flame Museum of Firefighting we have an example of this effort from long before the development of fire hose or hydrant systems.Just by the entrance to Gallery One in the Hall of Flame Museum of Firefighting sits a wooden hand pumper marked with the name “R. NEWSHAM ENGINEERS LONDON.” It’s the exhibit where most people begin their tour. She’s certainly not the biggest piece in our collection, nor the most powerful, nor the most colorful. But she’s dear to us because she is, by a good margin, the oldest large exhibit in the Museum. And next year she celebrates a landmark birthday: her 300th.Our Newsham “Fifth Size” English manual pumper was built in 1725—about seven years before the birth of George Washington, as we often tell our visitors, to place her in historical context. The Newsham firm was founded by Richard Newsham (died 1743) in London in 1718 and sold both to England and overseas, including cities in the American colonies like New York, Philadelphia and Williamsburg. Our Newsham spent her career in the north of England, serving a private estate and the village nearby.Newsham received patents in 1721 and 1725 on his pumper designs, which employed an air enclosure called a “windkessel” (a German term meaning “wind chamber”) to generate a smooth and constant outflow of water. He preferred wooden bodies over the metal tubs favored by continental manufacturers.The Fifth Size was one of Newsham’s largest models, employing a crew of about twenty on the pump handles and foot treadles to pump about sixty gallons of water per minute out of her rigid, upward-angled copper branch pipe. The treadles allowed the firefighters to pump harder without making the handles any longer. This improved the pumper’s maneuverability in narrow streets and reduced her tendency to rock. A bucket brigade refilled the 80-gallon capacity tub during use.We plan to make quite a fuss about our honored senior rig throughout her upcoming tricentennial year of 2025; watch this space for updates!Founded in 1961, the Hall of Flame Museum is a private non-profit organization that offers educational and outreach programs on fire safety and prevention to thousands of young people in Arizona every year. We are located near the Phoenix Zoo at 6101 East Van Buren in Phoenix. For more information go to hallofflame.org or call 602-275-3473.
REMEMBERING 1725
When introducing our Newsham hand pumper from England, we often note that she was built in London seven years before George Washington was born. It’s quick way to put the oldest large piece in the Hall of Flame’s collection in historical context for our visitors, especially kids. But this year our beloved Newsham turns 300 years old. So in celebration of her Tricentennial, let’s look at some of what else was going on in the world in 1725:
January: The earliest known professional boxing match was held in London on January 20, promoted by James Figg, between an English drover and a Venetian Gondolier. The Englishman was the victor.
February: Russian Czar Peter the Great (1672-1725) dies in St. Petersburg on February 8.Peter is said to have purchased pumpers from Newsham for Imperial Russia.
March: A gruesome month: a man’s severed head was found in London. His wife and an accomplice were later executed for the crime; who knows, Newsham workers may have gossiped about this case in the shop while building our pumper.
April: The First Treaty of Vienna, establishing the Austro-Spanish Alliance was signed in, well, Vienna. Meanwhile, famed lover Casanova was born in Venice.
May: The Battle of Pequawket took place between New England colonists and native Americans in what is now southern Maine.
June: Benjamin Franklin, founder of one of the first volunteer fire departments in the American colonies, sold a purse made of “asbestus” (asbestos) to an English acquaintance; the purse now resides in the British Museum. Meanwhile in Scotland, riots break out over taxes imposed on Scottish malt and their effect on the price of spirits.
July: Slave trader turned Anglican minister and abolitionist John Newton, who wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace,” was born in London.
August: The civil marriage between Louis XV of France and Princess Maria of Poland was held at Strasbourg. The French naval vessel Chameausinks near Nova Scotia, taking more than 200 lives; a treasure of gold and silver coins from the ship was recovered in 1965.
September: Arthur Guinness, founder of the Guinness Brewery, is born in Celbridge, Ireland.
October: Baroque composer Alessandro Scarlatti dies in Naples.
November: The Fourth Treaty of Vienna was signed. Again, this happened in Vienna. Apparently the first three Treaties left a lot uncovered.
December: George Mason, U.S. founding father for whom the famous University in Virginia was named, is born in Fairfax County.And although the month has not been recorded, 1725 also saw a fire that destroyed 70 houses in the London neighborhood of Wapping. It’s possible that Newsham pumpers were used to fight it.