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Masson Steam Fire Pump
Masson Steam Fire Pump

The worst disaster facing cotton mills was fire and with the invention of steam engines, the 19th century saw the development of very powerful steam-driven pumps, which would take the water from its source, usually a river, and pump it up to a large header tank on the top of the mill, where, in the event of a fire, the sprinklers inside the mill would be supplied with water by gravity feed, the fire pump replacing the water that the sprinklers were using.

This steam fire pump was made by George Mills and Co. Ltd., Radcliffe, Nr. Manchester, in the early 1900’s.

You see the sprinkler tank, painted red, on the top of the mill tower at the side of the chimney.