Turntable ladder
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A turntable ladder (also aerial ladder) is the ladder on top of a fire truck which is used by firefighters to rescue people from structures or to estinguish fire (using hoses and water from a nearby pumper). The first successful aerial ladder was patented in 1868 by Daniel Hayes. A spring-assisted raising mechanism for aerial ladders was developed by Seagrave in 1902. Pirch developed a hydraulic lifted aerial in 1931, which also eliminated the need to turn and extend the ladder manually. Eventually wooden ladders were replaced by stronger metallic ones. Soon it was possible to raise a 3- or 4-section, 100-foot, aerial ladder, although an additional "tiller" driver at the rear was required on such long apparatus when making sharp turns.
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