Men Demonstrating 1840 Fire Engine and 1830-1880 Hose Carriage, circa 1930

These five firefighters, photographed around 1930, demonstrated the operation of a hand-pumped fire engine from nearly a century earlier. In reality, as many as 20 people would have pushed on the long bars -- called brakes -- to work the pump. Under ideal conditions, the engine might have pumped more than 75 gallons of water per minute.