Steam Fire Engine

This is, beyond doubt, one of the most perfect models, of any type, in the world. It is a quarter-sized, working model, based on a "Metropolitan Double Extra First Size Engine" built for the St. Louis Exposition of 1904 and later sold to the Philadelphia Fire Department. The model was a lifelong dream of the William Francis and Frederic Gibbs and was built over a seven-year period by a team of seven Gibbs & Cox modelmakers under the personal supervision of William.

It is completely detailed, lavishly decorated, totally accurate, and fully operational. The gauges work, the canvassed rubber hose is made precisely as the original, and the bell and whistle are even tuned to the original notes! Steaming at 80 pounds to the square inch on cannel coal fuel, the model's pump can throw two streams of water up to fifty feet.

For more information, e-mail collections@MarinersMuseum.org.