Dave6T4
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ca. 1930 Ahrens-Fox unrestored pumper. Now, these are looked upon as the Duesenberg of fire trucks. Extremely well built and kind of rare. Unlike a lot of Fire engines, the A-F used a front-mounted positive displacement (piston) pump. The water was first pumped through that big chrome air-filled dome to take the "pulse" out of the water before it reached the firefighter on the nozzle of the hose. Most other fire engines used centrifugal pumps that did not create a pulse. A piston pump could not tolerate real dirty water, so were mostly used in hydrant situations. Centifugal pumps would pass dirt in water with little affect, so were more popular in rural halls, where the truck could be forced to pump from ponds, ditches, etc.
