Under the sponsorship of an insurance company, in 1840–1841, Hodge designed and built the first fire engine in the United States that was steam powered. It was also the first self-propelled fire engine; the engine used a dog clutch on the rear axle for movement, navigation, and steering. It could throw a jet of water of 290 tons per hour high. The horizontal cylinders lined up with the pump cylinders and worked with a pair of driving wheels. At the front axle, ahead of the smoke-box, was an air vessel that activated a bell. In 1896 the fire engine was reported to have weighed around 7 or 8 tons, and was long. The large back wheels of the fire engine were lifted off the ground by a built-in jackscrew when pumping water for use on a fire, whereupon they served as flywheels for the engine as it pumped. Hodge's fire engine was unpopular with the Pearl Hose Company #28 of the New York Cityfirefighters because its weight made it unwieldy to move down the streets. It was ultimately sold to another fire department and used as a stand-alone pumping engine that was not self-propelled. This was the only fire engine built by Hodge. No progress was made in that direction by anyone in the following decade. In 1847 Hodge moved back to England and became an eminent engineer there. His business address at the time was 140 Strand in London. One of his business activities was as a writer of technical manuals of steam engines.
Patents
Hodge patented some 16 inventions. These included devices for grinding wheat, regulating springs in railway cars, machinery for processing of felted cloth, machinery for brewing liquors, papermaking machinery, machinery that produced dinnerware, improvements in machinery technology for smelting of glass, metal, and porcelain. He also made improvements to machinery that made pigments for ink, gas lighting, and waterproofing of fabrics.
Works
The Steam Engine – including a description of a locomotive engine that he made for Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works of Paterson, New Jersey. Hodge’s description of the Dunham Engine was little more than a listing of parts. He mentioned that the usual steam pressure was 50 Pounds per square inch, and that the engine had been tested pulling a 220-ton train at 14 miles per hour up a slope. This was the earliest work to contain a complete drawing of an American locomotive. He worked for the Rogers Company on the locomotive Sandusky.
