A CENTURY DRAWS TO A CLOSE

The first fire fighting apparatus the town of Steamboat Rock had consisted of two 30 gallon steel water tanks of a cylindrical shape some 15 inches in diameter and six feet in length. These were mounted on a two wheel cart and were kept under the south stairs of the old school building. Tanks were equipped with 50 feet of high pressure rubber hoses and bronze nozzles. The tanks were pressurized by use of acid and soda. Each tank had a steel cage into which an acid bottle was affixed in a manner providing for a steel hammer to be activated by a crank which broke the bottom of the bottle and thus mixing acid with the soda water creating some 100 pounds of pressure in the tank. William Hartman, the local blacksmith was the fire chief.