Monadnock Moment No. 150

Era 5: Civil War and Reconstruction - 1850 to 1877

A Hot Demonstration

In the spring of 1867, a crowd of local residents gathered on Central Square in Keene to view a demonstration of a new invention. This new machine was a chemical fire extinguisher.

A 12 foot square shed was built in the middle of the street and filled with combustibles. The grand finale of the demonstration was to be the use of the new machine to extinguish a fire in the shed. As a preliminary event, however, a pile of oil barrels was set on fire on the other side of the square.

As the demonstrators were spraying the burning barrels, a shout went up that someone had set fire to the shed. The extinguishing crew abandoned the barrels, which were burning brightly, and ran to the now blazing shed. Just as they arrived at the shed, someone jokingly turned down the valves on the chemical tanks. The fire was so hot that the demonstrators could not get close enough to reach the flames with the diminished spray from the extinguishers. The crew finally gave up and watched helplessly as both the barrels and the shed burned in the street. The crowd was highly amused by the disastrous demonstration. Although the fire extinguisher eventually earned a place in homes and businesses around the world, it is a good bet that none were sold on Central Square that day.