Firemen with their Standard
Photograph
Firemen with their Standard
From the album Photographic Views and Costumes of Japan
ca. 1868
Albumen silver print with applied color
20.4 x 24.2 cm.
Purchase
1979.0059.0019
Inscriptions (applied label, printed, opposite page):
FIREMEN WITH THEIR STANDARD.
THE breaking out of a fire is announced by sounding of bells, which are erected in all towns for that purpose alone. The exact quarter in which the fire is raging is notified by the mode of ringing; and thither the Fire brigades of the different wards, each with a distinctive standard hasten. The standard is placed in a position near the fire, and there is held, frequently until scorched by the advancing flames; and this is looked upon as evidence of having done good service.
The engines in use among the Japanese are of simple and primitive construction. They have no service pipe, and water is supplied by buckets, the contents of which are poured into the square wooded box enclosing the pump. The hose in merely a few lengths of hollow wooden piping; and the quantity of water thrown is little greater than that of a good sized squirt. In fact, the means for extinguishing fires, although they are of frequent occurrence and very destructive, are singularly imperfect.
FIREMEN WITH THEIR STANDARD.
THE breaking out of a fire is announced by sounding of bells, which are erected in all towns for that purpose alone. The exact quarter in which the fire is raging is notified by the mode of ringing; and thither the Fire brigades of the different wards, each with a distinctive standard hasten. The standard is placed in a position near the fire, and there is held, frequently until scorched by the advancing flames; and this is looked upon as evidence of having done good service.
The engines in use among the Japanese are of simple and primitive construction. They have no service pipe, and water is supplied by buckets, the contents of which are poured into the square wooded box enclosing the pump. The hose in merely a few lengths of hollow wooden piping; and the quantity of water thrown is little greater than that of a good sized squirt. In fact, the means for extinguishing fires, although they are of frequent occurrence and very destructive, are singularly imperfect.
