Amoskeag Steam Pumper, Waltham, 1871

Waltham, Massachusetts, bought this Amoskeag steam pumper in 1871. It was the city's first powered fire apparatus and stayed in service into the 1930s, and it now stands in the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation in Waltham. Amoskeag of Manchester, New Hampshire, completed its first steam fire engine in 1859. Look at the tall vertical boiler and the huge rear wheels: a steamer could keep pumping long after any crew on the handles would have tired, but it took a team of horses to get it to the fire.