ned to the
boiler, the steam cylinders being attached directly to the steam dome. This
arrangement obviates the necessity of carrying steam to the cylinders
through pipes of considerable length, and the machine has very little
vibratory motion when in operation--so little that it is not necessary to
block its wheels to keep it in its place, or to take the weight off the
springs before commencing work.

The pumps are placed on the engines as near the ground as they can be with
safety, and are arranged so as to attach the suction and leading hose to
either or both sides of the machine, as may be most convenient or
desirable, so that less difficulty will be found in placing an engine for
work, and when required to draw its own water, it has only to draw it the
shortest possible distance.

Each engine has two "feed pumps" for supplying the boiler, and also a
connection between the main forcing pumps and the boiler, so that it can be
supplied from that source if desirable. The tank which carries the water
for supplying the boiler is so placed that the water in it is always above
the "feed pumps," an advantage that insures the almost certain working of
these pumps. These pumps are of brass, the best locomotive pattern, and one
of them running with the engine, when at work, furnishes an ample supply of
water to the boiler.

[Illustration: Fig. 75.]

The engines are exceedingly portable; they can be turned about or placed
for service in as contracted a space as any hand engine, and two good
horses will draw a first-class engine with the greatest ease, carrying at
the same time water for the boiler, a supply of fuel sufficient to run the
engine two hours, the driver, the engineer, and the fireman.

Fig. 75 is a representation of the class of steam fire engine built by
Silsbee, Mynderse & Co., Seneca Falls, N. Y. under Holly's patent.

The boiler is vertical, with vertical water tubes passing directly through
the fire. These tubes are closed at the bottom and open at the top, where
they pass through a water-tight plate, and communicate with the water in
the boiler. The arrangement of the tubes causes a constant current, the
water rising on the outside of the tubes as they are heated, and its place
being supplied by a current flowing downward through the tube to the
boiler. The smoke and flame pass among the tubes up through flues.

Both engine and pump are rotary, and of the same type. They consist
essentially of two ellip