Description:In Enoch Wood's day, factories and coal mines needed more than buckets of sand to put out serious blazes.
The trouble was that there was - as yet - no rapid-response fire service to call upon.
Unsurprisingly, inventors and producers of new firefighting equipment could bend the ear of many a manufacturer.
Engineer William Heath, of Lane-End, here addressed Enoch Wood personally, and writes:
"Have took the liberty of sending you this circular, to communicate to you, that, I engage to erect Mechanical Apparatus, to operate in cases of, (and subdue), the Heaviest Fires, in Buildings of the Greatest Elevations; Country Seats, Warehouses, Storehouses, Store-Rooms, Banking-Houses and Theatres; Mills of every description, cotton, silk, paper &c."
He promises that the machinery can be powered by steam, wind, water, horsepower or manpower.
About this document
Burslem pottery manufacturer Enoch Wood collected this document, and it is now among the collections at Stoke-on-Trent Museums.