Leather bucket used by English firefighters in the past.

[SUP]

 I saw this online and thought I should mention it here - a leather bucket used to carry water to fight fires. I believe it is 9 inches in diameter and 15 inches tall.

[fredk]

Leather fire-buckets were still in use here up to recently

[SUP]

Wow!  I didn't know that. I just put up what was in the description of the bucket. So this could be vintage rather than antique. 

[fredk]

Leather buckets have been used for centuries. Some are/were made to be collapsible for easy storage. Very necessary on the old sailing ships such as HMS Victory. For use in fire-fighting they have certain advantages over metal buckets; they take knocks and being thrown about better, they leak through the sides and this seepage protects the leather from the heat. Leather doesn't get hot nor does it burn. A metal bucket can very soon get too hot to handle

[zuludog]

Also, in the days of gunpowder, knocking and scraping a leather bucket wouldn't cause a spark

This was still a consideration during WW2, when troops manning gun positions would change out of their usual nailed/studded boots into boots with plain leather soles for working in the magazines and handling ammunition

Edited November 9, 2023 by zuludog

[SUP]

@fredk @zuludog when you stop to think of it, what you both say makes perfect sense but I think most people today do not think behind the reasons of why something was practical. We just say, "Oh! Olden times they did not have metal buckets, so they used leather... inefficient" when actually, it is just the opposite in those circumstances. @zuludog the same with the boots. 

Thank you both for sharing your knowledge. 

[zuludog]

Diverting slightly --

I have visited Fort George in NE Scotland, find it on t'Net

This was built in the 1700s, and is still an active military base, though this is reduced, and a large part of the fort is now a museum

The gunpowder store, now part of the museum was once lit by candles, as a naked flame was the only source of illumination at the time. The candles are placed in a small windowed enclosure that juts out into the magazine, and is sealed on the magazine side. Access and ventilation is made from outside the magazine, on the other side of the wall

For similar reasons, the tools and equipment used were made from wood, copper, and brass

[fredk]

The gunpowder store on HMS Victory is exactly the same

When I was in RAF, whenever we were to go into the servicing hangars we had to remove all metal from our pockets and put on rubber soled gym shoes because of the aviation fuel vapours.

The stoopid bit was, come tea-break time we all sat on the grass right outside the hangar having our tea and a ciggie. You could smell the aviation fuel heavy in the air