Murray Binning
Terry Hewitt (NZFS Liaison) Denis O’Donoghue Colin Prince Kevin Farley
Graeme Booth Peter (Sprats) Doughty Grant Manning Forbes Neil Tony (Scottie) Scott John (High-rise) Walker Gary (GT) Walker
This issue is dedicated to the MACK Aerialscope and we have obtained permission to reproduce an article that appeared in a recent issue of Fire Apparatus Journal from the USA on the history of the Aerialscope. There is also some photos from the society's collection on the Auckland scope.
Fire Region Manager Kerry Gregory
Above address membership@afbhs.co.nz Website: www.afbhs.co.nz Like us on Facebook
Full: $15.00 Associate: $10.00 (overseas) Brigade/Corporate: $50.00 Membership year: 1 April—31 March
Fire Museum Network– USA NZ History Federation Inc. MOTAT Society—Affiliate UFBA—Associate member NZ Ex Firefighters Assn.
The society wishes to thank Fire Apparatus Journal Publications Inc. for allowing us to reprint the article on the following pages.
The Development of the Aerialscope n the early sixties, New York City Chief of Department, John O’Hagan, envisioned an elevating platform device for his department but did not feel the articulating boom as used in Chicago and elsewhere was the answer to the conditions in New York City. He contacted Mack Trucks, where Chief Fire Apparatus Engineer Ralph Heiney accepted the challenge to fulfil the need and coined the name Aerialscope for the envisioned device. The NFPA calls this type device an aerial platform. The original designer and builder called it an aerial llft and New York City dubbed it a towerladder, substituting this for aerial platform on the boom of the first unit delivered. O’Hagan was one of the few New York City chiefs at that time who attended trade shows and was willing to look outside the department at trends and advancements in the fire service. Some of the problems he saw with the existing available articulated booms at the time(Snorkel, Hi-Ranger, Aero Chief) if used in New York City were the narrow street widths with numerous overhead wires limiting the ability for the articulated boom to swing around. Another major overhead obstruction through-out the city was the presence of numerous elevated railroad structures and to a lesser degree,elevated highways. Another huge factor was that most of the door openings in existing fire stations were too low to accommodate the height of existing elevating platforms. Lastly, the generally accepted travel height on city streets is 10-foot 10-inches, again due to elevated railways and highways. Despite all these negatives, manufacturers of articulating booms were invited to New York City to demonstrate their products,confirming O’Hagan’s concerns. According to Mr. Timothy J. Travis, CEO of Eaton Metal Products, Mack entered into a contract with Truck Equipment Company in Denver, Colorado, a firm that specialized in designing and manufacturing equipment for the telephone and utilities industry. Truck Equipment Company, known as Truco, was owned by Ajax Iron Works. It was subsequently bought by Eaton Metal Products in September of 1963. Eaton is an engineering and metal fabricator that builds pressure vessels and storage tanks, among other things, for various industries. Truco had a contract with both Mack and New York City, which proved unwieldy and was reduced to a single contract between Eaton and Mack Trucks. A mystery that has not been explained is that
a concept model was constructed by Mack Trucks on a B model chassis. This vehicle was a bare bones model with no bodywork or rear fenders. What appears to be a counterweight is mounted above the rear wheels. There are four jacks, one at each corner, as well as outriggers,but all appear smaller than what was mounted on the production model. Photos exist of this B model Aerialscope being demonstrated on Welfare Island, then the location of the New York City Fire Department Bureau of Training. New York City fire officers are visible in the bucket and at street level while the tower is demonstrated. After some trials and evaluation,recommendations were made for modifications. The Mack Museum has not been able to provide any details or documentation, nor information on this vehicle’s ultimate disposition. It can be presumed that this B model testbed was scrapped but there is no confirmation of this. Any information on this “mystery B model” would be much appreciated. The first production model 75-foot Aerialscope was delivered to New York City on a C model chassis. The boom on this vehicle was much more substantial than that on the pilot B-model test bed. Truco designed the hydraulics and electronics and Eaton’s expertise was in the boom construction. Both Truco and Eaton take credit for the first Aerialscope, which was delivered to New York City in July 1964. This apparatus was assigned to Ladder Company 1 in lower Manhattan on August 31, 1964 and was utilized at almost every major fire citywide. This apparatus is believed to be the first telescopic platform device to enter fire fighting service in the United States. According to Mr. Travis, Mack delivered a bare chassis with no cab to Truco, where the aerial device was mounted, and then Mack mounted a cab and formulated blueprints for subsequent deliveries, which were delivered by Eaton. Eaton then went on to deliver twelve more Aerialscopes through 1969, all built on Mack C-85 model chassis including: St. Louis, Missouri;Missoula, Montana; El Monte, California; Massena, New York; Allentown, Pennsylvania;
Butte, Montana; Yipsilanti, Michigan; and five more to New York City. The St. Louis and El Monte rigs were open-cab models. Several of these C-model Aerialscopes were later sold to other departments. Contrary to misinformation that Eaton went bankrupt or fell behind on production, Eaton decided to give up the Aerialscope business to concentrate on their core business, pressure vessels and storage tanks for the energy, power, and mining industries. They sold their aerial lift division, including patents, to Mack in 1969 who then contracted with Baker Equipment and Engineering Company in Richmond, Virginia,who coincidently was an Eaton dealer. Meanwhile, back in New York City, the Aerialscopes were proving their worth on a daily basis. The short overall length of the apparatus allowed it to get around congested city streets easily and greatly assisted in positioning on the fire ground. The tower-ladder operations in New York City proved so successful that Chief O’Hagan formulated a plan to purchase a sufficient number of the new units to place one in each Division (16 at that time). However, because of the continued great success of the first plan to equipping roughly one-third of New York City’s truck companies with tower-ladders. Baker delivered their first Aerialscope device to Mack in 1970, who delivered the first to be built on a CF chassis to Bedford, Ohio. When Mack exited the building of complete fire apparatus market in 1985 they gave Baker the rights to market the Aerialscope directly. The following year, Baker introduced its 95-foot Aerialscope boom. A 1988 Baker ad shows the Aerialscope by Baker still being built on a Mack CF chassis, which Mack continued to market to various fire apparatus body builders. Baker experienced financial problems and was purchased by JGB Industries. Baker became a division of JGB.
Mack Trucks never trademarked the name Aerialscope. A 1991 ad by JGB Industries shows both Baker and Aerialscope now trade marked. After Mack CF chassis production stopped in 1991, Duplex and FWD became chassis choices, although others were used as well. Records indicate that a total of 377 Aerialscopes were built on CF chassis. Of these, 35 were 95-foot booms. Mack Aerialscopes were sold throughout the United States as well as in Canada and New Zealand. But, aside from New York City, only a handful of ‘big city” departments purchased them: Atlanta, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Phoenix,Vancouver, and Tacoma. Closer to New York City where their use was obvious, Jersey City,Bayonne, Plainfield, and Hackensack in nearby New Jersey and Yonkers, just north of the City,all acquired Aerialscopes. Seagrave bought the Aerialscope business from Baker in 1996 and created Aerialscope Inc. before moving the entire operation to Clintonville, Wisconsin in 2003. Production continues today on both 75-foot and 95-foot Aerialscopes. As can be seen the Aerialscope has a complicated and intriguing history and it is ironic that this shining star in Mack’s crown is now owned and marketed by a former arch rival! Mention should be made of the rehab phenomena. In the early 1980’s New York City began selling surplus rigs outright instead of disposing of them for salvage. Many towerladders were among those rigs sold. Most of these apparatus were well-worn and beaten up but were mechanically sound. Many fire departments purchased them and had them refurbished. Several firms dedicated to fire apparatus rebuilding came into being and the major manufacturers also offered refurbishment services. While most of the Mack CF towers retained their original cabs when refurbished, some were mounted on new chassis while others had the CF cab replaced by one from a totally different manufacturer. Still others were used to remount the boom on various new chassis. This lead to some interesting combinations. As a footnote to this story, the only known nonfirefighting Aerialscopes built were four 75-foot models delivered to Pennsylvania Power & Light in 1976. They were built on six-wheel-drive Mack RM chassis and utilized for off-road transmission wire maintenance. It should also be noted that several Aerialscopes moved on to second careers for tree-trimming and painting firms after they retired from firefighting.
is the quarterly journal of the Auckland Fire Brigades Museum & Historical Society Inc. and is sent free to all members, the National Library and other Historical Societies in the Auckland area. Please feel free to pass it onto others that may find it of interest and encourage them to join the society. We actively seek photographs, stories and other information for publication in this journal or adding to our growing memorabilia collection. Anything that is related to the Fire Services, not only Auckland City, but the Auckland Fire Region (Mercer to Wellsford) which is the societies area of interest.