Fire Engine, STEAM

Portable pumping engine for putting out fires; of two general types, the rotary and the reciprocating. The rotary are more compact and lighter, and can use very inferior water, as they have no valves. They are liable to wear, and do not work so well against great resist ances. The reciprocating have one or two pumps, usually of the fly-wheel type, operating with a yoke. The boiler is of the Firenzuola, Agnolo, 1493-ab.1547. Italian poet and dramatist, whose works reflect the free taste of his age rather than his character as monk of Vallombrosa and abbot of Prate. Tr. Apuleius' Golden A .