Monday, February 8, 2016

1947 Ahrens Fox Model HT Pumper fire truck


What is that silver sphere on the engine?

1 comment:

prptram said...

In regard to your query ( re silver sphere ) I am not at all a fire engine expert ( my hobby interests are into different vehicles ) but it is possible to hazard an intelligent guess as follows :
The prime purpose of the fire engine is to pump water quickly in great volumes. It is likely that the basic pump on that scale would have a 'reciprocating' action rather than a 'turbine' type action, so there would be a pulsing effect in the volume of water passed. It is likely that the sphere was some kind of buffer between pump and outlet which would serve to smooth the flow somewhat. As I am not an expert I am happy to be corrected by any expert who knows better.