Scientist of the Day - Lysander Button
Button hand pumper, the “Columbian,” built 1868, sold at auction, 2012, for $115,500, RM Auctions/Sotheby’s (rmsothebys.com)
Lysander Button, an American inventor and manufacturer, was born in North Haven, Conn., on Sep. 2, 1810 (or perhaps Sep. 12). He moved to New York when he was 15, first to Albany, and then to Waterford, where the Erie Canal (just completed in 1825) joins the Hudson River. Although unschooled, he went to work in a foundry, and quickly rose to become foreman. His company made hand pumpers for firefighting, and by 1841, Button owned the company, which he renamed Button & Co. It later became Button & Son, and then Button Fire Engine Works.
Poster advertising the Button Fire Engine Works, showing both hand pumpers and steam pumpers, chromolithograph, ca 1885, Huntington Digital Library (hdl.huntington.org)
The original staple of the company was the hand pumper, which is a piece of machinery we can all understand, especially when you see it in action. It looks like a lengthy but slender carriage, with long horizontal wooden handles on either side, connected to rocker arms. In the bed is a casting with two large cylinders. At one end is a nozzle that is connected to a water source. At the other end is the fire hose. Two teams of men pull down the handles on each side as fast as they can, alternating, the two pistons chug up and down, and a gusher of water streams out the front hose, propelled by up to 150 psi to distances of 200 feet. It is something to behold. There are several videos on YouTube of firefighters demonstrating hand pumpers for townsfolk. If this very short video is gone by the time you read this, just search for "Button hand pumper."
Close-up look at a Button hand pumper, Konoko No. 1, built 1853, on display at the Koorsen Museum, Indianapolis (koorsenmuseum.com)
What makes this story so interesting is that hand pumpers (or "handtubs", as they are often called) are referred to as "Buttons" to this very day, no matter who made them. But most were really made by Button, before he sold his business in 1882, and even then, the Button name was retained. Original Buttons are regularly offered at auction, and can sell for $100,000 or more, bought by collectors and museums and often by firefighter associations (first and fourth images).
Button & Co. hand pumper, built 1856, sold at auction, 2022, for $63,500 (bringatrailer.com)
Button & Co. began making steam pumpers in the 1860's – you can see several on the poster we reproduce (second image) – for which Button won an award at the Centennial World's Fair in Philadelphia in 1876. These were truly fire "engines," which the hand pumpers were not. But they don't seem to have the romantic attraction of the handtubs, perhaps because it takes a lot of money and know-how to keep them operational, but all you really need for the hand pumpers is several dozen brawny and willing firefighters.
I have seen one portrait of Button, but it was tiny and in a pdf and not really reproducible. I would like to find a good portrait to add to this post, so if you know of one, please let me know.
Close-up of the stern of the 1856 Button hand pumper shown just above, with the company logo (bringatrailer.com)
There are only four people named Lysander biographed on Wikipedia, and three of them, including Button, were born within four years of each other in Connecticut, Massachusetts, or New York. All were presumably named after the ancient Spartan commander who defeated Athens. But why then, and why there? A conundrum, to be sure.
William B. Ashworth, Jr., Consultant for the History of Science, Linda Hall Library and Associate Professor emeritus, Department of History, University of Missouri-Kansas City. Comments or corrections are welcome; please direct to ashworthw@umkc.edu.
