Infrastructure

This all began out of sheer boredom. Idle time abounds during July and August, so aside from reading the paper, doing all the puzzles, and pondering the universe, I'll whip out the cellphone camera and take all sorts of pictures. It's usually pictures of mundane things.... Like a street sign, a noteworthy bit of graffiti, or even something as mundane as traffic.

Today, I got a picture of a fire hydrant.

This fire hydrant was right nearby, so I pulled up next to it and snapped the picture early this afternoon while I was waiting for my next fare.

Like anything else, fire hydrants have enthusiasts. Consequently, it only took a few minutes to get info on the manufacturing company that made most (if not all) of the familiar looking old fire hydrants in town.

R. D. Wood Company of Philadelphia, PA, is the name imprinted on the top tier of these hydrants. The R. D. Wood Company was bought out by the Kennedy Valve Companyof Elmira, NY, around 1963.

I can understand why R. D. Wood went out of business, though... no repeat customers. Unlike lightbulbs, fire hydrants apparently live longer than people do.

I wonder how many more of this style the DPW has in stock?

While finding all this out after work today, I also came across some more recent designs for fire hydrants from the vonRoll Hydro company in Switzerland.

This is so "next week" isn't it?

After all, why does a fire hydrant have to look like it belongs in a boiler room?