Details of Merryweather's Self-contained firefighting engine 

Happy to have found your channel after seeing the Proper People show off your work with the Woburn Waterworks engine! The amount of knowledge you're able to share so quickly is really captivating, I love hearing all the little details. Hope these more frequent videos can continue!

This is exactly the sort of thing I imagine you using to power-wash your driveway, or your car. What a lovely engine.

Seems fitting that you would need to light a fire to fight fire. Beautiful engine.

"Yessiree Bob" and "Country mile" ~ I'm eighty years old and I haven't heard these used so elegantly in fifty years.... ... .. ! 😀👍

A pleasure to watch. I am from Lancashire England and the steam engines powered our cotton towns and employed thousands - we owe a lot to the engineers of old. In my opinion these steam engines are not only functional, but works of art with great beauty. You are doin all reet lad!

"It's got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, it's got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas. What do you say, is it the new Bluesmobile or what?" 😅👍 Love it!

Hello this is the 19t h century calling we want Alex back please

He definitely has a passion for what he does. I would love to see more of the restoration process and learn more about the different machines

As a modern day Firefighter. I find this very interesting. I have seen these types of engines/ pumps in pictures or static displays. But never one actually working.

Can't agree with you more on the next day delivery, order now for Monday society we live in. I live in what was the workshop of the world little old England and it drives me nuts. Great video as always my friend. The world needs more AEK

I saw one of these going at vintage show and they had a land rover fire engine returning the water and it was flat out to keep up with the merryweather

That’s a very beautiful engine it’s nice seeing it run

He was talking about how it’s so hard to get anything anymore I agree unless everybody needs it weekly nobody keeps it in stock and you have to hunt for somebody that has it hundreds of miles away 😢great video this gentleman is a man out of time you could send him back to the early days when steam was king and he would fit right in and would be happy 😃

That was excellent! Back in the 70's Live Steam Magazine had an article about these, thats where I first learned about a Scotch yolk to drive the pump.

I saw this guy on The Proper People channel. I'm glad I just happened to stumbled on this channel. This is some great content. Thanks for sharing.

I came after finding out channel from the proper people’s video. I’m a firefighter in California and was hoping to see some steam firefighting equipment and got my wish! Thanks for the share!

Best channel on RU-vid.

Just recently found your channel. The Woburn water pump is fascinating! Your channel is a really sweet find! Are you aware of the North Woburn Machine Shop? Its a machine shop which supported the leather industry 150(?) years ago; and is still a working shop with the addition of a few modern lathes & mills. The power distribution shafts/leather belts and many of the original machines are still in place; including (what must be the world's largest) broach press. I don't know if the original steam engine is there. In any case, its a wondrous trip to yesteryear. Thank you for your time & effort in sharing your love of machinery.

What a nice engine!

I never knew I was interested in steam power until i saw the PP video on the Woburn waterworks. Just realized you had a channel. Great content, Alex. Keep it coming!

So the anthracite is not to your taste? Maybe a A. E. Karnes production: coal and rubbish. A favorite talking point when any devotees of steam are gathered together around a fire hole door. Another great video. thanks for posting.

Beautiful engine.

I recently stumbled across your channel and I am enjoying it immensely. I served on a U.S. nuclear submarine from 1975 until 1979 as a nuclear power electrician. More than once I sat between the main engines and marveled at the wonder of the steam turning the turbine generators to make electricity and turning the propulsion turbines to push the boat through the water hundreds of feet below the surface. Not only that but steam provided the heat needed to make the lithium bromide air conditioning work. In fact it worked better, and quieter, than the massive mechanical air conditioning, though it was less than 1/3 their size. Your videos give a sense of the roots of what we had in place. Thank you so much.

ahh yes i love this guy

A local estate in the day had a Merryweather Fire King. This was the self propelled steam fire engine. I've seen old photo's of it. Correct me if I'm wrong but none of this model has survived. I always a treat to see these type engines put through their paces.

i'm so happy to see a 20 minute video from you. Hoping to see more. Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for maintaining and operating these beautiful steam engines and honoring their history.

Awesome½ It is a true shame almost all of those beautiful macines whent to the scrapyard in my country only the empty barns by the old roadsides serve as a reminder today.

wow you are the grand master of steam engines!!

Tks for your Obsessions shared

Oh wow. I think there’s one of these in the Somerset County Museum in Taunton!

A ... a piece of functional art :-)))

i love this guy

If there were more educators like you the world would be a much better place.

I’m hooked - wonderful channel

You deserve to have way more subscribers.

Magnificent! Love to see the machines designed and built by craftsman preserved for whatever generations may be left. Thank you!

I cannot get over how much this guy looks like Nick Fink from Legacies.

Brilliant as always. Keep 'em coming please!

Another good one, thanks

Thank you for what you do.

Thank you for posting, you really tell how it is, nice engine too

Well done!

Beautiful keep it up. I love to see the antique fire aperatuses going to see where we we come from

I'm sure glad I found your channel. I have been a steam fanatic for years. What a beautiful piece of equipment.

What a sweet little fire engine! I love the wheels on it! such a great way the spokes attach to the rim, I'm going to file that idea away for future use.

Highly excellent A.E.

I absolutely love these longer videos! Do you have any videos or plan on making any videos on your past at the lighthouse you briefly spoke on in the Proper People video? I'm fascinated in what you would have to say on that as well. Hope you are doing well, looking forward to your next video!

We need you to come to Michigan and help us convince the nuts in charge of the Henry Ford museum and Greenfield village to get back in line with Ford's original vision for the place and actually run the steam engines there.

Awesome! ‼‼‼‼‼

Bonjour Alexander, Another exciting video, furthermore with a great whistle, thanks a lot. I am impressed by the quality of the whole assembly and notably by the injector. I am just surprized to see a manual lubricator instead of a displacement one, weird isn't it ! 15 minutes is fast t operate, but against a fire, it is a long time, do you know if they were "pre" fired ? What is the difference bertween regular coal and anthracite for heating ? Would the second one mire efficient and making less ashes ? Funny to see sparks from a firefighting engine 😁 Amicalement, Raphaël

There is one of those, horse drawn from1840 at Penrhyn Castle.North Wales. That's got all its fittings

Nice

This stuff makes a ice look simple

Very nice, what a fantastic engine. Seems to really shift water, any ideas on how many litres per second it does? Wouldn't like to pull it up hill to a fire though, 😂 Really enjoying your channel 😀

I'm sure you are aware of Shannon Hardware in Morgan City. What a place! Cheers.

On a large estate would something like this be kept on a low fire at all times? I can't imagine getting it running from dead cold would have helped fight a fire in a timely manner.

Fully agree, getting any kind of parts is all needing to be ordered-in. I blame all the chain stores killing off the specialists and small guys.

I never really though about it before but these steam firefighting engines, back in the day how long did it take them to get up steam? With something burning down time is of the essence.

Hey Alex, found your channel by way of machinery the Proper People Woburn episode, found it very interesting! Any idea when you'll be in Woburn again? Would like to come by & get a nice history lesson on old steam machinery!

1:47 This whole thought train same thing vacuum tubes. 30yrs anyway.

@A.E.Karnes could you do a video about basic steam lubricators like this has, tallow cups in particular and their use? would be much appreciated

So how long it takes to fire this thing up? Wouldn't a building just burn to the ground by the time this pump could be put to work? The engine is awesome and beautiful though.

Why don't you like American anthracite? I grew up in a house heated with anthracite coal mined in the rockies in British Columbia. It burns very clean and hot. Is the American stuff different? We had a batch delivered when I was a teenager that was full of rock, so I spent many days after school sorting coal. But unlike the kids that worked in the tipple that used to be across the road from our house, I got to watch Nickelodeon on satellite TV and surf the net on 56k dialup when I was done my coal duties for the day. Okay I just watched a bit more... our furnace had shaker grates, we'd stick a crank on the shaft at the end of each grate and gently rattle the coals. It didn't ever seem to have and adverse effect on the fire. Oh your anthracite coal looks different yours. Ours looked like obsidian, but with the durability of hard candy.

I like this dude does he have a social media?

The Brits are rational people.

How much horsepower and torque could you pull off that flywheel with a belt? Talk about a neat green portable generator for a farm. Throw some hedge apple in it and you are burning green coal to get stuff done.

So they had to light a fire to put out a fire. You should time yourself from a cold start to when you are pumping water. Maybe that thing was more of a novelty than practical??

How easy was it to accidentally blow-up the boiler on one of those? As a former firefighter, I gotta say, that water pressure sucks, like 1/4-1/3 of what it needed. I didn't see a guage, but the reach was shorter than a truck. I don't know what nozzle that was, but the flow (volume/gpm) isn't great, either. Maybe that's what it was supposed to be, idk, but I guess that's why it was retired.

Yeah maybe you wait for shipping. On the flip side you can find products you'd never have had access to otherwise. And what is one day shipping, if you needed something 100 years ago shipped it'd be weeks. Don't be so hard on the world we are all just trying to get by.

Sentinel owners will dissagree.. lol they can be a cow to dismantle.

Hello, sent a number of emails with no answer, is there a different email?? Thanks

You can't find good quality American Anthracite anymore... too much slack, shale and iron in it these days. Good anthracite is wonderful, though... almost entirely smokeless, hot and full-burning.

Never trust a jersey shore member running a steam unit with no gloves on. Tells me they’ve never been steam bit

Seems rather plain snowflakes shouldn't have anything to do with a steam boiler or engine. Crying towels and helmets won't keep you from doing something stupid.