Education - FDNY History

A Quick History of the FDNY - by Peter Rothenberg and Geoff Giglierano
Chapter 1: Begining With a Blaze	Chapter 8: The Process of Professionalization
Chapter 2: The First Fire Engines	Chapter 9: Faster and Better in a Changing City
Chapter 3: Competition	Chapter 10: Covering More Ground
Chapter 4: Hear the Loud Alarm Bells	Chapter 11: Firefighting Starts Becoming a Science
Chapter 5: Pumpers and Politics	Chapter 12: Larger Events Affect the Department
Chapter 6: Decline of the Volunteer System	Chapter 13: FDNY and Times of Social Upheaval
Chapter 7: Volunteer Department's Demise	Chapter 14 The Job Goes On

Chapter 5: Pumpers and Politics

"Saw the new Philadelphia engines in action. They are cumbrous, unwieldy things with their two ranks of pumpers (like double banked gallery), but they throw glorious streams of water, and throw them with ease, over the roofs of the highest stores. I suppose they require each about thirty men, and probably two ordinary engines to keep them full. This was a dry-goods store, and all of it that wasn't burnt must have been soaked by the Philadelphia deluge..."
George Templeton Strong, diary entry April 16, 1840

Engine Company #38, in 1840, was the first in NYC to use a double-decker, or Philadelphia style, engine. Named Southwark after the area of Philadelphia from which it was from, the engine was larger and more powerful than its predecessors. It utilized the pumping action of firemen more efficiently, providing a stronger stream of water. Upwards of 40 men standing on two levels, on the ground and on the engine itself, were needed to operate it.

Volunteer companies played a central role in New York City politics until they were disbanded in 1865. Seven NYC mayors started as volunteer fire men. So did one of the most notorious figures on the history of New York City politics, William M. Tweed. Tweed was the boss of one the most powerful and corrupt political machines in the city's histrory. Embezzlement of fire department funds becames an increasing problem.