Identifier: oldfarmerhisalma00kittuoft (find matches)
Title: The old farmer and his almanack : being some observations on life and manners in New England a hundred years ago suggested by reading the earlier numbers of Mr. Robert B. Thomas's Farmer's Almanack, together with extracts curious, instructive and entertaining as well as a variety of miscellaneous matter
Year: 1920 (1920s)
Authors: Kittredge, George Lyman, 1860-1941 Thomas, Robert Bailey, 1766-1846
Subjects: Thomas, Robert Bailey, 1766-1846 Almanacs, American -- New England New England -- Social life and customs
Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Dearborn, raised a tube of30 feet on my pump, but the severity of the season pre-vents my compleating it; having so far executed it only,as for one person to work at the brake; I can myselfthrow water on the top of a neighbouring building, thenearest part of which is 37 feet from the pump, andbetween 30 and 40 feet high. It was thought that thisstationary machine might be of use in private families,something like a fire-extinguisher nowadays, but it doesnot seem to have been extensively adopted. In the nextyear Mr. Dearborn applied the same principles of construc-tion to a portable engine, which is figured in the samevolume. The advantages which he claimed for his inven-tion were cheapness, ease of manufacture, and economyof labor in operation. Apparently, however, it never gotbeyond the model stage. Mr. Dearborn also devised a 1 A. W. Brayley, Complete History of the Boston Fire Department,Boston, 1889, p. 105; cf. Belknaps letter, Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc, 1stSeries, IV, 188. 2 I, 520.
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fire! 153 ladder and receiver and a leveller. The former wasa primitive kind of fire-escape, consisting of a ladder long enough to reach from the ground to the chamberwindows and of a sliding box attached to the ladderand operated by ropes. In the accompanying descriptionhe emphasizes the expedition and security with whichpersons and articles may be transported to the groundfrom the chamber windows of a house on fire or indanger. The leveller was an implement for destroyingbuildings by tearing out the posts, sills, and beams.Models of both inventions were deposited with the Massa-chusetts Historical Society, but it does not appear thatthe contrivances were ever put to a practical use.1 One of the most surprising of the anecdotes in Mr.Dearborns Directions is that in the ninth section: —Ahouse was once destroyed by a rat running away with alighted candle for the sake of the tallow, and conveying itinto a hole filled with rags, and inflammable matter. Noone can fail to admire the addr

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