Electric fire engine
The electric motor was claimed to be simpler, cleaner, and faster in operation, would save money, and require less maintenance than the steam fire engine.
American inventor Schuyler Wheeler patented an electric fire engine system in the United States in 1885.
When the engine was tested, it gave very good results, and is now in use at the factory of the Crocker-Wheeler Electric Company, in Ampere, New Jersey.
Mr. Whiting made improvements to the design of an electric fire engine which was granted a patent (#632,665) in 1899. the principal points are the special combination of motor, a rotary force-pump, controller and safety-valve, and automatic stop-motion.
[14] Experimental electric fire-engines were made for testing in France, Germany and England starting in the latter part of the nineteenth century.
[19] The French electric fire engine, known to them as the automobile pump, was first exhibited at the 1900 World's Fair in Paris and became very popular during its first six months of successful operation.
It is a fuel cell battery vehicle that is designed halfway between a twenty-first century automobile and an ordinary gasoline fire engine.
[29] In 2020, Rosenbauer announced that the production model, renamed the RT, would begin trials with Amsterdam, Dubai, and the Australian Capital Territory.
[34] A specially-equipped Rosenbauer was put into service for hazardous materials calls for Cambridge, Massachusetts in August, 2024.
This would require underground or overhead wiring similar to that used for electric light, trolleys, and other power users of the time.
[37] It was thought that the wiring could supply electricity to various outlet posts at strategic places throughout a city or fire protected district.
The vehicle itself was to be hauled by horses and would consist of a carriage wagon with an electric motor-powered water pump permanently mounted atop.
It was necessary to keep the fire going all the time to boil the water on a steam pump vehicle, with workmen furnishing coal for it.
Another disadvantage was the possibility of power loss caused by wire breaks or electrical equipment failures – which often happened during storms.
[43] The nineteenth-century idea to replace the existing steam fire engines with electric ones was ahead of its time and never moved forward.
