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Fire Engines Photos

 
1910 Dennis Sales Catalogue
Fire Engine Photos
No: 39648   Contributor: Dr. B.A. Hutchinson   Year: 2015   Manufacturer: Dennis
1910 Dennis Sales Catalogue

An extract from a 1910 Dennis fire engine sales catalogue. You can see that the 6 cylinder Rapier of the day was £50 more expensive than the Sabre. Rather than solid rubber tyres, Dennis's of this period were often fitted with 'KT air cushion' tyres. These comprised of rubber 'top hats' pushed through a perforated steel band. Air trapped under the top hat gave a cushioning effect. Full pneumatic tyres with an inner tube were some years away for commercial vehicles
Picture added on 22 December 2015 at 15:49
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In those days a very high percentage of vehicles were still horse drawn, and this lasted into the 1930s in most towns. Cast off horseshoe nails were scattered around everywhere, so punctures were very common on vehicles with pneumatic tires. This was a major reason why many luxury cars carried two spare wheels.

Even after these became available on commercial vehicles in the 1920s, most fire brigades still specified solid tires in the UK until around 1930, when truck tire technology was much improved and horse drawn traffic had sharply declined. Even then, it was very common for fire appliances to carry a readily accessible spare wheel...

Added by Rob Johnson on 17 June 2018.
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