A Fireplug: we could say that its about plumbing

History With RCS: From fireplug to fire hydrant    

                 You may know a fireplug as a place often found at the corner of a city street. A dog may urinate there. A fireplug has been called a fire hydrant. 

                Reminiscing, it comes to me that the justly famous US judge, Learned Hand, was once figuratively associated with the term, fireplug. I have forgotten the story, but am pretty sure that it included a dog.  Read on and you will be able to make an educated guess as to the origin of the word "fireplug" before reaching the climax of this post. You might find useful information in the historical section at www.theplumber.com

                In the early US trunks  and limbs of hemlock and elm trees were used to make piping to carry water from one place to another. Logs from 9 -  10" thick might be cut into 7 - 9' lengths for this purpose. Not an easy piping to use.  
                

                The men who made and laid this piping were called borers. They were named for their use of the five foot steel auger they carried with them. In those days of 1600 - 1700s these men attracted a great deal of curious attention as they traveled from town to town to carry out their unusual craft. They also brought welcome news and gossip with them. No TV or radio in those days. Up the www!

                Borers bored and formed sections of trunk so that they could tightly ram log sections together to form a series. The joints were usually sealed with pitch or tar. Sometimes a log might b split, hollowed out, bound with metal hoops, and caulked with lead with the help of a blacksmith. Plumbers were later named for their use of lead. Blacksmiths was the name for iron workers to distinguish them from goldsmiths, silversmiths, bronze smiths, etc. 

                Most water systems were gravity flow outfits. They would start at perhaps a spring or stream on high ground and allow the water to flow downhill to, say, a farm house. The line might lead to the back of the house, then on to the barn, and from there on to a catch basin.

                Water was tapped by a smaller ole bored into the log and stopped with a wooden plug.

                The city of Boston was one of the earliest places in the country to have a real waterworks. It probably first went online about 1652. In those days nearly every house was of wood and had an open hearth fireplace. Fire was a major danger. So, the first water works was for both domestic and fire fighting use.

                It was comprised of a hole drilled into the side of one of those log pipes at a strategic spot and a wooden plug used to stop that hole. A fireman could then remove the plug when and where water was needed to fight a fire. Thus fireplug!

                Let me add a bit. The line supplying water to Boston's wharves and other buildings ran from Jamaica Pond to the Faneuil Hall area, the meeting place for the Massachusetts rebels who held their Boston Tea Party in the nearby harbor on Dec. 16 1773. Not so long ago a section of a wooden water main was removed from that same vicinity. The log measure 22 feet long, the bore  4"  in diameter for the lower half of the tree, and 2-1/2 in the upper. Common with early wood pipe, the trees natural forks branched out in wyes and tees.

                In 1795, The Jamaica Pond Aqueduct Corp. followed through with 15 miles more of 3" and 5" wooden water pipe of bore logs, again using hemlock trees for construction. Since open wells provided easy prey to contamination from nearby privies, the new supply of fresh water contributed to a lower death rate.

           

                 These rustic new pipelines were valuable to firefighters. They would bore a hole into the side of the wooden pipe along the edge of the street, insert a smaller pipe, and connect the hose of their fire wagon, a two man pumper. The fire out, they would plug up the hole again with a wooden plug. A fireplug.

                                                                                                                                RCS

Early Waterwworks in the U.S.A.

  History With RCS: If the Water doesn't work,we don't work, and don't play much either  

                You may know a fireplug as a place often found at the corner of a city street. A dog may urinate there. A fireplug has been called a fire hydrant.  

                Reminiscing, it comes to me that the justly famous US judge, Learned Hand, was once figuratively associated with the term, fireplug. I have forgotten the story, but am pretty sure that it included a dog.  Read on and you will be able to make an educated guess as to the origin of the word "fireplug" before reaching the climax of this post.

                In the early US trunks  and limbs of hemlock and elm trees were used to make piping to carry water from one place to another.Logs from 9 -  10" thick might be cut into 7 - 9' lengths for this purpose. Not an easy piping to use.  

                The men who made and laid this piping were called borers. They were named for their use of the five foot steel auger they carried with them. In those days of 1600 - 1700s these men attracted a great deal of curious attention as they traveled from town to town to carry out their unusual craft. They also brought welcome news and gossip with them. No TV or radio in those days. Up the www!

                Borers bored and formed sections of trunk so that they could tightly ram log sections together to form a series. The joints were usually sealed with pitch, tar or resin. Sometimes a log might b split, hollowed out, bound with metal hoops, and caulked with lead with the help of a blacksmith. Plumbers were later named for their use of lead. Blacksmiths was the name for iron workers to distinguish them from goldsmiths, silversmiths, bronze smiths, etc. 

                Most water systems were gravity flow outfits. They would start at perhaps a spring or stream on high ground and allow the water to flow downhill to, say, a farm house. The line might lead to the back of the house, then on to the barn, and from there on to a catch basin.

                Water was tapped by a smaller hole bored into the log and stopped with a wooden plug.

                The city of Boston was one of the earliest places in the country to have a real waterworks. It probably first went online about 1652.
In those days nearly every house was of wood and had an open hearth fireplace. Fire was a major danger. So, the first water works was for both domestic and fire fighting use.

                Have you guessed the origin of the word fireplug? 
It was comprised of a hole drilled into the side of one of those log pipes at a strategic spot and a wooden plug used to stop that hole. A fireman could then remove the plug when and where water was needed to fight a fire. Thus fireplug!

     

 

                                                                                    RCS