Instructies voor het gebruik van de slangbrandspuiten, ca. 1695 1690s

This is an instruction manual for a hose fire pump, printed around 1695. It speaks to a very specific societal anxiety: the ever-present threat of urban fires in a densely populated city. The text offers insight into the technologies of the time, and also into the social structures that would have been necessary to operate such machinery. Who would have been tasked with using this equipment, and what level of training would they have required? What would it have meant to be responsible for preventing a fire from spreading through a neighborhood? The manual’s existence underscores the collective responsibility felt by communities to protect their property and lives. It also demonstrates a degree of social organization and planning, revealing the communal efforts to mitigate risks. It highlights both the reliance on shared resources and the division of labor inherent in urban life during the late 17th century. The printing press allowed for the broad dissemination of knowledge, and the text testifies to the belief that the written word was an essential tool for instructing and organizing society.