A Wrenching Affair

PETER: While firefighters’ reputation has changed over time, it’s also clear that technology they use to fight fires has changed too. While researching this show, we heard about one piece of historical technology related to the age old question, what would you save from your home if it were on fire? So we sent producer Bruce Wallace to the town of Katonah in New York’s Hudson Valley to track it down.

HENRY BERGSON: Hi, Bruce. I’m Henry Bergson. How are you?

PETER: Over his 50-year firefighting career, Henry Bergson has turned his home into a private museum of firefighting artifacts. He’s collected over 1,500 items. So every room is pretty much stuffed. Bergson’s collection displays everything from this 19th century speaking trumpet, used by fire chiefs to direct action on scene–

HENRY BERGSON: Now boys, [INAUDIBLE] shake the engine up?

PETER: To a fire alarm box. When triggered, a code wheel telegraphs the location of the box to the firehouse, telling them where the fire is.

ED: But Bruce was there to see one of the most unassuming firefighting tools in the early days.

HENRY BERGSON: This is the exalted bed wrench.

ED: That’s right, a bed wrench, around the size of the average wrench in your toolbox. In colonial times, every firefighter carried one. Mutual aid societies, those neighborhood collectives we heard about in the last segment, actually required them.

HENRY BERGSON: The bed was the most important thing, normally the first piece of store bought furniture that a family would have. It’s too big to take out the front door, so the fireman would have to take it apart.

BRUCE WALLACE: It just fits in and turns.

HENRY BERGSON: It mates up with a bed bolt that goes in the end of the bed, so you can undo the rope mattress. And then you end up with two side rails, a headboard, and a footboard. You could turn the footboard and headboard sideways and head right on out the door. By the time the 1850s or 1860s rolled around, brass beds became very popular. You could disassemble that by hand. So the use of a lot of bed wrenches, at least as a firefighting tool, had passed on by.

BRUCE WALLACE: Does that indicate that fireman’s responsibilities in the early 19th century were different than they are later, that saving the personal property would have been a priority?

HENRY BERGSON: I don’t really think so. I think today, if you ask a fireman what’s your job, it’s preservation of life and property. We carry salvage covers on our trucks, and we’ll go in as part of the fire suppression operation and try and preserve the owner’s goods and valuables. When I was fire chief here in Katonah, we had a serious attic fire. We put a ladder up to get into the attic, and I can recognize a good painting. So I recognized the Renoit and the Picasso.

The owner was with us, and he made a comment to me, he said, it’s always nice to have a fire chief at least appreciates good art.

ED: That’s Henry Bergson in Katonah, New York.