One of my friends in New England is a volunteer with a small town fire company which still owns a wooden manual pumper from the 1800s. This is taken out and carefully submerged in a local lake every so often so it does not dry out too much! I can't help wondering what you do to re-hydrate a fifty foot wheeled ladder? Maybe a Merryweather steel ladder - which we are told was original - would be less bothersome?
Added by Rob Johnson on 08 July 2021.