In 1721, Richard Newsham was granted a patent for his “new water engine for quenching and extinguishing fires”. In reality, this new invention was described as:

Newsham’s 1721 invention was an early fire engine: a hand-operated water pump mounted on a wheeled carriage so it could be moved to a fire. It was useful equipment, but it was not a sophisticated machine that made firefighting easy. The description “little more than a water pump on a cart” best fits the invention.

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