John Morris and Sons Salford

The business was founded in Salford by John Morris by 1877. After he retired in 1905 his three sons – John, James and Fred – incorporated a limited liability company, John Morris and Sons Limited. This company remains in existence but dormant. Part of its former business is continued by a division of Schneider Electric industrial safety systems.

Ajax escape ladder, Chester

Morris-Magirus turntable fire escape, Australia

At Salford Fire Engine Works, Manchester 5, John Morris and Sons manufactured:

Fire engines—pump escapes— (until 1921?)

Morris-Magirus turntable escapes (until the second world war) mounted on other brand heavy commercial vehicles

Morris own-design turntable escapes mounted on other brand heavy commercial vehicles (at least into the 1950s)

Wheeled escapes

Trailer pumps, hose reel carts

Ajax extension ladders, portable extension ladders, belt and rope fire escapes, rope ladder fire escapes

Union canvas fire hose, nozzles sprayheads and valves

Acme flax fire hose

Morris hose couplings, hydrants, adaptors and connectors, standpipes, branchpipes

Fire extinguishers, fireman's axes, fire buckets

1912 pump escape with Belsize 14.7 litre engine—Southampton Fire Brigade

1914 fire engine—Indian Railways

A long established maker of horse-drawn fire-engines, John Morris and Sons came a little late to the manufacture of motor vehicles.[5]

John Morris and Sons' first motor driven "first-aid motor fire engine" was built in 1905 for Cape Town's Metropolitan Fire Service.[6] It was fitted with a 30–40 h.p. Belsize engine and provided accommodation for six firemen.[7]

The first motor-driven fire-pump built by John Morris and Sons was for the Bury Town Council. It was built in 1909 after Morris and Sons had already turned out from its works a large number of motor-driven first-aid engines, tenders, and fire-escapes.[8]

Their Ajax petrol-propelled motor pump was fitted with a 70 b.h.p. engine which drove a special form of turbine pump which, it was claimed by the makers, had advantages over similar existing apparatus of other makes as well as over various types of reciprocating pump which were also being offered. The pump was extremely compact, leaving room for considerable first-aid plant including a 50-ft. sliding-carriage escape, a 30-gallon chemical tank complete with reel and hose, and stowage capacity for 2,000 ft. of hose and all the other standard equipment suitable for such a turnout. The capacity of the standard pump offered by this maker was rated at 350 gallons per minute although an alternative 450-gallon pattern was also available.[9]

Postwar

1948 Leyand Beaver

In 1952, John Morris and Sons offered a 100-foot turntable pump escape on a Leyland Beaver haulage-type chassis. It incorporated a device providing automatic compensation for road camber and gradient and an automatic cut-out when the escape reached the safety limit of extension at a given angle of elevation. The hydraulic escape ladder reached full height in 18–20 seconds. In an emergency, the ladder could be operated manually. There was a two-way loudspeaker telephone. The Coventry-Climax pump had a capacity of 350–500 g.p.m. The usual compartment behind the driver's cab seated a crew of four, and at the sides and rear of the platform were lockers for storing hose, monitor branches, unions, tools and other equipment. The escape stopped instantly if the ladder met any obstruction while being moved.[11]

Siebe Gorman, manufacturers of diving and breathing apparatus, bought John Morris and Sons for cash in January 1970.[12] Siebe Gorman merged with BTR in 1999 to form Invensys, which became part of Schneider Electric in 2013.