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Auction: 17020 - Autographs, Historical Documents, Ephemera and Postal History
Lot: 862

Autographs
Fire Engines
Sun Fire Office: 1784, a lengthy and detailed bill to the directors from John Bristow, fire engine maker, in eighteen pages showing the cost of maintenance and repair of their fire brigades engines. An extraordinary document giving insight into the engines employed by this company and the cost of maintaining their equiment which included a floating engine

John Bristow took over the firm of another early and innovative fire engine maker, Richard Newsham, in 1765 and began making manually pumped fire engines at premises in Ratcliffe Highway to the west of London. He quickly became a major manufacturer of fire engines and supplied them to the fire brigades maintained by the insurance companies, volunteer brigades and country houses. He produced a range of machines, some very large ones requiring many men to pump them. He had contracts with a number of insurance companies to provide engines and other firefighting equipment.

The Sun Fire Office maintained a number of brigades in both London and various provincial centres.

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Sold for
£220