Shand Mason

Shand Mason was a British company which designed and manufactured steam powered fire engines and other fire-fighting equipment during the 19th century and early 20th centuries.

In 1850, when Tilley retired from the business, his two sons-in-law James Shand and Samuel Mason continued the business as Shand and Mason, later Shand Mason & Co.[1] The company operated from premises at 75 Upper Ground Street, Blackfriars, just south of the River Thames in London, and having initially manufactured manually operated pumps,[2] secured various patents to improve the design and construction of steam fire engines.

[1] While the first steam-powered fire engine had been developed by John Braithwaite and John Ericsson in 1829, the first commercially successful fire-engine was a water-borne version developed by Shand Mason & Co, which went into service in 1855.

[3] From this point and particularly from the 1860s, the company worked with the chief of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, Eyre Massey Shaw and with competitor Merryweather & Sons, to perfect designs for land-based use by the London brigade and other municipalities.

[3] Its engines were initially horse-drawn, but later installed on fireboats (Europe's first, the Fire Queen was built by Shand Mason for service in Bristol's docks in the 1880s), and mounted on motor vehicles.