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  • #1

    Squirt guns

    I know from the title you already probably got a bad taste in your mouth from this thread, but this is a serious question.

    I was watching Ken Burn's Civil War, Episode 1, "The Cause". In it is a quote by W.T. Sherman, "you might as well attempt put out the flames of a burning house with a squirt gun...."

    And here it is, what is Sherman refering too when he says "squirt gun"

    I don't picture a 99 cent neon colored squirt gun from a gas station, but I don't know what to picture. Would it be a weak fire hose

    A search showed up nothing.
    - Pvt. S. Martin Aksentowitz
    1st California Co. F
    Carleton's Cannibals

    [CENTER][COLOR="Red"]Angst kommt; da werden sie Heil suchen, aber es wird nicht zu finden sein.- HESEKIEL 7.25[/COLOR][/CENTER]

    [CENTER]"To day we. . . stopped a few minutes to examine the crumbling ruins the walls were defaced with Texians traitors names and Texican Braggodocia but nary a Texican thare to answer to his name or make good his writing on the wall."
    -Eli W. Hazen, 1st California Vol. Inf.[/CENTER]

    [RIGHT][COLOR="Silver"]"Credo Quio Absurdum" - ECV[/COLOR][/RIGHT]
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Squirt guns

    Just a guess but maybe he is refering to a device the was used in firefighting the resembled a large syringe. I believe it was caled a syringe. I have seen examples in museums etc. The device is used by one or two men holding the device on either side while another pushes in a plunger there by discharging the water in a direct stream rather than a bucket being tossed onto the fire.
    Rob Walker
    Co. H
    119th NYSV
    Old Bethpage Village Restoration


    Old Bethpage Village Restoration and Castle Williams on Governors Island safe for now. Thank you to everyone for your help!!

    "There is a fine line between a hobby and mental illness"

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    • #3
      Re: Squirt guns

      Someone, somewhere might have the archived thread from YEARS ago on this very topic. Was it here? Szabo's? The erstwhile "list?" I don't recall, but there WAS a sizeable amount of information provided on it.
      Marc A. Hermann
      Liberty Rifles.
      MOLLUS, New York Commandery.
      Oliver Tilden Camp No 26, SUVCW.


      In honor of Sgt. William H. Forrest, Co. K, 114th PA Vol. Infantry. Pvt. Emanuel Hermann, 45th PA Militia. Lt. George W. Hopkins & Capt. William K. Hopkins, Co. E, 7th PA Reserves. Pvt. Joseph A. Weckerly, 72nd PA Vol. Infantry (WIA June 29, 1862, d. March 23, 1866.) Pvt. Thomas Will, 21st PA Vol. Cavalry (WIA June 18, 1864, d. July 31, 1864.)

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      • #4
        Re: Squirt guns

        I recieved an PM from Mark Jaeger that I think sufficiently answered the question.

        Originally posted by markj
        Hi,

        Saw your inquiry about "squirt guns." I suspect they were likely something akin to garden sprayers (the ones with a handle attached to a rod that you push in and pull out).

        An October 1858 item in the New York Times mentions a student fight at Amherst College, Massachusetts, in which a "huge tin squirt gun" was taken from one side. Given this, I'm pretty sure the "gun" was a tin sprayer, which could be filled with water that was then pumped out in a stream by working the handle.

        Incidentally, the quote you mentioned by Wm. T. Sherman also appears in an August 1864 New York Times article, so it's definitely of war-time vintage.

        Now, don't even get me started on "pop-guns".....!

        Regards,

        Mark Jaeger
        - Pvt. S. Martin Aksentowitz
        1st California Co. F
        Carleton's Cannibals

        [CENTER][COLOR="Red"]Angst kommt; da werden sie Heil suchen, aber es wird nicht zu finden sein.- HESEKIEL 7.25[/COLOR][/CENTER]

        [CENTER]"To day we. . . stopped a few minutes to examine the crumbling ruins the walls were defaced with Texians traitors names and Texican Braggodocia but nary a Texican thare to answer to his name or make good his writing on the wall."
        -Eli W. Hazen, 1st California Vol. Inf.[/CENTER]

        [RIGHT][COLOR="Silver"]"Credo Quio Absurdum" - ECV[/COLOR][/RIGHT]

        Comment

        • #5
          Re: Squirt guns

          Attached is (I hope) a hand syringe from Gardening for the South; or the Kitchen and Fruit Garden: With the Best Methods for their Cultivation, together with Hints Upon Landscape and Flower Gardening.

          This sounds like what Mark is talking about.

          Vicki Betts
          Attached Files

          Comment

          • #6
            Re: Squirt guns

            Awesome! That's exactly how I pictured if from what Mark said. It looks an awful lot like those water canons sold at target or pharmacy corner store.

            Thank you everyone who replied, I appreciate it!
            - Pvt. S. Martin Aksentowitz
            1st California Co. F
            Carleton's Cannibals

            [CENTER][COLOR="Red"]Angst kommt; da werden sie Heil suchen, aber es wird nicht zu finden sein.- HESEKIEL 7.25[/COLOR][/CENTER]

            [CENTER]"To day we. . . stopped a few minutes to examine the crumbling ruins the walls were defaced with Texians traitors names and Texican Braggodocia but nary a Texican thare to answer to his name or make good his writing on the wall."
            -Eli W. Hazen, 1st California Vol. Inf.[/CENTER]

            [RIGHT][COLOR="Silver"]"Credo Quio Absurdum" - ECV[/COLOR][/RIGHT]

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: Squirt guns

              D. C. Beard mentions home-made squirt guns in his American Boy's Handy Book (written in 1882, but based on his experiences as a boy; he was 11 at the outbreak of the war). He explains how to build one out of a cane fishing pull, quill, and a pine or cedar plunger. The illustration in the book looks very similar to the one in the above article.
              Last edited by edharmon; 09-24-2006, 09:45 PM.
              David Craig

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              • #8
                Re: Squirt guns

                Not only have I found a reference to 'squirting', I have a picture of some mischievous boys using a squirt gun to squirt their little brother and his friends through the key hole.

                See the picture of page 229 of Physiology of New York Boarding-houses by Thomas Butler Gunn, 1857.

                Browse | Cornell University Library Making of America Collection
                http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?root=%2Fmoa%2Fmono%2Fgunn0157%2F&tif=00231.TIF&cite=http%3A%2F%2Fcdl.library.cornell.edu%2Fcgi-bin%2Fmoa%2Fsgml%2Fmoa-idx%3Fnotisid%3DANY6384&coll=moa&frames=1&view=50


                Trish Hasenmueller

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                • #9
                  Re: Squirt guns

                  This is to funny
                  Burt Page
                  Salt River Rifles/75th OVI

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                  • #10
                    Re: Squirt guns

                    The entire book is just that funny. I highly recommend it!

                    Trish Hasenmueller

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