Shand Mason was a British company which designed and manufactured

steam power A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be tr ...

ed fire engines and other fire-fighting equipment during the 19th century and early 20th centuries.

History

The company that eventually became Shand Mason was founded in 1760 by Samuel Phillips, and incorporated as Phillips and Hopwood in 1797. In 1818, after William Joshua Tilley had joined the business, it became Hopwood and Tilley and later Tilley & Co. In 1850, when Tilley retired from the business, his two sons-in-law James Shand and Samuel Mason continued the business as Shand and Mason, later Shand Mason & Co. The company operated from premises at 75 Upper Ground Street, Blackfriars, just south of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the ...

in London, and having initially manufactured manually operated pumps, secured various patents to improve the design and construction of steam fire engines. While the first steam-powered fire engine had been developed by John Braithwaite and

John Ericsson John Ericsson (born Johan Ericsson; July 31, 1803 – March 8, 1889) was a Swedish-American inventor. He was active in England and the United States. Ericsson collaborated on the design of the railroad steam locomotive ''Novelty'', which co ...

in 1829, the first commercially successful fire-engine was a water-borne version developed by Shand Mason & Co, which went into service in 1855. From this point and particularly from the 1860s, the company worked with the chief of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade,

Eyre Massey Shaw Captain Sir Eyre Massey Shaw KCB (17 January 1830 – 25 August 1908) was the first Chief Officer of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (now renamed the London Fire Brigade), and the Superintendent of its predecessor, the London Fire Engine Establis ...

and with competitor Merryweather & Sons, to perfect designs for land-based use by the London brigade and other municipalities. Its first land-based engine used by the Brigade was produced in 1860. Its engines were initially horse-drawn, but later installed on

fireboat A fireboat or fire-float is a specialized watercraft with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. The first fireboats, dating to the late 18th century, were tugboats, retrofitted with firefighting equipm ...

s (Europe's first, the ''Fire Queen'' was built by Shand Mason for service in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city i ...

's docks in the 1880s), and mounted on motor vehicles. The business was eventually taken over by Merryweather & Sons in 1928.

References

{{manufacturing-company-stub Firefighting equipment Steam power 1760 establishments in England British companies established in 1760 Manufacturing companies established in 1760