The steam fire engine is practically a portable pumping engine.
_It is in all respects a complete water works on a small scale_,
hence, a modern apparatus must, within itself, and each part working
harmoniously with every other part, contain several complex mechanisms.
This will readily appear by a study of the several succeeding
illustrations; the first, which in the figure below exhibits a “view”
of a complete machine.
[Illustration: FIG. 389.
(See page 109.)]
Modern steam fire engines are classified as to “size,” as “double extra
first,” etc.; their capacities and weights are given approximately in
the following