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 |
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1857
Button & Blake Hand Pump |
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1886 Silsby 1st Size Steam
Engine |
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1911 ALF Type 5 Chemical |
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1911 ALF Type 8 Roadster |
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1912 ALF 5th Size Steam
Engine |
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1914
ALF Type 12 Fire Engine |
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1919
Ford/ALF Model T Chemical |
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1920
ALF Type 75 "Flare Body" |
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1920
ALF Type 40 Combination |
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1926
ALF Type 75 Triple |
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1929
ALF Type 270 DB Service |
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1931
ALF Type 191 Pumper |
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1932
ALF Type 245 Pumper |
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1935
ALF Type 415 RC Pumper |
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1940
ALF Type 575 CC Pumper |
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1956
ALF Type 775-PJC Pumper |
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1958
GMC/Pittman Snorkel |
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1969
ALF "Dominion" Pumper |
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The
Apparatus Collection
In 1872, in the
midst of the American Industrial Revolution,
Truckson LaFrance, with his partners, started
the LaFrance Manufacturing Company in order to
produce hand pumps and rotary steam engines
based on LaFrance’s new patents. As his designs
began winning major national competitions, the
LaFrance name began to spread.
Over the next three
decades, changes in technology came fast and
furious. Powerful piston steam engines replaced
the venerable rotary, a remarkable screw-driven
ladder truck came to the aid of a new class of
urban firefighters, and the emerging threat of
industrial fires spurred the growth of chemical
retardants to battle them. Through it all, the
company stayed on the crest of this new
technological wave.
At the turn of the
century, the LaFrance Fire Engine Company joined
with the American Fire Engine Company to become
the American LaFrance Fire Engine Company.
As fire departments
nationwide began clamoring for self-propelled
fire engines to replace horse-drawn rigs,
American LaFrance began to experiment with
radical designs that utilized gasoline instead
of steam.
By 1916, American
LaFrance produced a 6-cylinder, gas-powered
pumping apparatus that performed so well it
literally spelled the end of the steam engine.
By virtue of its own vision of excellence and
innovation, the company had made obsolete the
very technology upon which it had been founded.
Throughout the early
to mid-twentieth century, through two World
Wars, and the urban boom of the 50’s and 60’s,
American LaFrance continued to be at the
forefront of fire apparatus design and
manufacture. Many of the models produced then
are now considered prized collector’s items, and
have found proud places in museums and private
displays all over the world.
The collection
consist of 18 vehicles that range from 1857 to
1969.
