“To eliminate the possibility of a spurt test, they placed the engine behind a building out of sight of the open tank into which water was to be discharged to measure the actual gallons per minute pumping capacity of the engine. Asa placed his 12-year-old son on a shed in sight of both engine and tank. When the nozzles were directed into the tank, the young 'stranger' was told to wave a handkerchief as a signal. So the canny demonstrator was enabled to conserve his boiler pressure until the precise moment when it was most needed.”Īsa made the sale and the Bridgeport firemen never knew their “out of sight” test was not as accurate as they had planned. In the early days, selling fire engines was quite competitive. The brothers had to resort to ingenuity at times to make a sale. Because a salesman had promised a little too much to the Bridgeport, Connecticut, department, the officials added a little extra touch to make the test more difficult. View Gallery: Gallery: A look back at American LaFrance Diven and his four sons, who were prominent lawyers and civic leaders.”īy July of 1873, they had purchased about 10 acres and constructed a small plant on the old “Keg Factory” grounds in Southport, producing the first steam engine by the end of the year. Vischer became a director and Truckson LaFrance was employed as an engineer. The principal founder-owners were General Alexander S. “Their efforts attracted the attention of some wealthy local men and they bought out the operation on Apfounding the LaFrance Manufacturing Company. John Vischer, head of the Iron Works, became interested and was convinced by Truckson to manufacture a steam fire engine. A short time later they had a small fire engine business going. Truckson would eventually obtain a job at the Elmira Union Iron Works where in the early 1870s he was able to secure several patents on improvements he developed in the rotary steam engine. The basic improvement he patented was the “nest tube boiler” which strengthened the most unreliable part of the early engines. Ward LaFrance, nephew of Truckson, wrote that the Daily Advertiser purchased the first power press in the city introducing it at an open house. But on that day it did not work. “A modest young man suggested a remedy” when no one else could solve the problem. “What do you know about a press? He was asked. Nothing was the answer, "but I think if you will do as I suggest, she will be alright.” He fixed it and was hired by the Advertiser. He also became an “engineer” for the fire department.
While the Common Council argued over which steam engine to purchase, a young man named Truckson LaFrance came to Elmira. A descendant of a family of French Huguenots, he was born in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 14, 1834. Truckson was the oldest of five sons born to Willis and Clarissa LaFrance. He had an “inventive mind” and came to Elmira seeking employment. It seems only logical that from this beginning Elmira would become the “Fire Engine Capital of the World.”
“At times the fight was quite furious. Our worthy city officials confined themselves to an abbreviated alphabet, but the boys sometimes resorted to ever ready youthful fists upon the least provocation.” After weeks of wrangling they decided to buy both machines, one a rotary and the other a piston engine. Fairman, a Sillsbee supporter conducting the contest. Upon becoming a city in 1864, the competition in Elmira was between Republicans and Democrats, in the famous “fire engine fight” shortly after incorporation. Up to that time Elmira fires were fought with a couple of old-fashioned, hand-fed fire engines. According to a 1921 Telegram article, “when it came to purchasing our first steam fire engine there were two active contestants for the honor - and Elmira’s money. One was an Amoskeag made somewhere down-east and the other a Sillsbee, manufactured in Seneca Falls.”Īpparently the final test took place on the Main Street bridge with a committee led by Democratic Alderman De Bruce Goodell, an Amoskeag adherent, and Republican Alderman Charles G.
In the scramble fistfights often broke out and volunteers might step on each other’s hoses.
Over time, volunteer companies formed and were disbanded and new ones started. Competition among the organizations could be fierce. Sometimes, when more than one company responded to a fire, there was a race for the water supply. The Village of Elmira was incorporated in 1828, and that same year three fire wardens were selected.
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