In this reprint from a September, 1953 issue of Fire Engineering Magazine, the Peter Pirsch & Sons Co. of Kenosha, WI highlights 50 years of building fire engines for the Chicago Fire Department. The ad states that they started with 27 Pirsch Horse Drawn Wagons built in 1907, then there were 3 Pirsch equipped motorized chemical and hose cars in 1912 (the first motorized apparatus in Chicago), followed by 2 Pirsch equipped 600-gallon pumpers in 1916, and then 15 Pirsch 1,000-GPM 2-door cab pumpers built in 1953.
Bill Friedrich collection
#1 by Debbie Longnecker on January 13, 2013 - 8:40 PM
I’m looking for a picture from June 1953 BF Goodrich add published in your magazine. My father, Delbert Maker, is in the ad. Could you please tell me now I might find a copy of that picture. My son is a lieutenant at the same fire department as my dad. Our family is a family of firefighters going all the way back to the Great Chicago fire.
Thanks!
#2 by David on May 15, 2012 - 2:17 AM
Phil, thanks a lot for all the info! I’m just wondering that there’s still quite a few of rigs I haven’t seen so far like the 1908 Seagrave hose wagon or the Emergency repair truck. Was that a wrecker or a service truck?! I’d just love to see these old machines, what a pity that there’s not something like the CFD’s Wheels of the Bravest. As far as I know most of the CFD books (at least the ones I know of) don’t cover all of these early types which is quite a pity. BTW really interesting is the Babcock chemical apparatus – reminds me of the 1960s fog pressures.
#3 by Phil Stenholm on May 14, 2012 - 9:45 PM
DAVID: The CFD Pirsch hose wagon pictured above (labeled “1912”) is a photo of one of the Mais/Pirsch rigs delivered to the CFD in 1911-12. (Pirsch was using various commercial truck chassis to build their automobile hose wagons at that time). The two Mais/Pirsch rigs were initially assigned to Engine Co. 45 & Engine Co. 63.
A third Mais/Pirsch utility truck was acquired shortly after the two Mais/Pirsch hose wagons and was placed into service as the CFD’s Emergency Repair Truck at E103 (ANNEX), responding to assist disabled automobile apparatus in the field (this was pre-Shops).
BTW, all 24 of the hose wagons acquired 1911-13 (Harder, Robinson, and Mais/Pirsch) were equipped with soda-acid chemical systems (pioneered by Babcock in 1872) which were used to attack a fire while the engine company’s steamer was hooking up to a nearby hydrant.
#4 by David on May 14, 2012 - 12:18 PM
Oops, I meant the 1911 Harder hose wagons not Knox, my mistake. By the way I’d like to ask on the Mais hose wagons. Were these rigs the COE style or conventional (with the nose)?! Also is there any book covering this very early CFD apparatus?! Thanks!
#5 by Phil Stenholm on May 14, 2012 - 10:27 AM
Not counting the three self-propelled Amoskeag steamers placed in service in 1877 (converted to horse-drawn in 1878), the first motorized CFD apparatus was a Seagrave hose wagon placed in service with Engine Co. 104 in 1908, but it was returned to Seagrave after a one month trial.
24 automobile hose wagons were acquired 1911-13 (19 from Harder, three from Robinson, and two from Mais), and three squads were acquired from Harder in 1912.
The first automobile pumper placed in service was a 1912 Nott tractorized steamer (Engine Co. 5), but the tractor was disconnected and it was converted to a horse-drawn apparatus in 1918.
Shortly after the Nott tractorized steamer went into service, a 1912 Webb 650 GPM pumper was placed into service with Engine Co. 102.
Begining in 1914, a number of tractorized-steamer/automobile hose wagon combinations were placed into service with CFD engine companies. That’s why a lot of the firehouses built 1915-19 (the first to be built as a garage rather than as a barn) were two-bay houses or double-wide one-bay houses that were specifically designed to house the automobile combination companies (Engines 38, 43, 82, 102, 110, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, and 126).
#6 by David on May 14, 2012 - 1:44 AM
I always thought that the 1st CFD motorized rigs were the Knox cabover Hose wagons from 1911 (maybe I’m mistaken).