Fire Hydrants

My blog has been named The Cultured Fire Hydrant for a reason. I was discussing blogging with a friend, and suggesting she make hers about fire hydrants. Then, this idea struck me and I decided to use my own idea and use this topic for my first post. You probably know what a fire hydrant is. In fact, you've probably seen many of them. If I daresay, you probably see them everyday, assuming that you go outside on a daily basis. For those of you who don't, this is a fire hydrant. Just kidding. I'm far too technologically challenged to figure out how to do that. Basically, they are short stumps protruding from the ground and covered in many knobs of various functions. They are most commonly seen in a bright red colour, though they are often yellow. On a few occasions, I myself have seen bright blue ones. As you can see, the colour varies often, and has no effect on the purpose of the hydrant itself. These hydrants are connected to a city's municipal water supply and exist for firefighter's, who can glean water through them by attaching a hose. Fire hydrants started as fire plugs in the 1600's. Firefighters would dig hasty holes into central pluming systems and use the resources for the time as water to extinguish a fire. When this was done, the hole would be plugged with a slab of wood, generally that of a redwood tree. Fire plugs involved into fire hydrants in 1666 after The Great London Fires. After this scare, holes were drilled at different intervals to allow for quick and easy access. The modern hydrant was invented around 1801, generally credited to Frederick Graff Sr. However, the exact inventor remains unknown, as the patent was burned in a fire in D.C. No, I'm not joking. That's just irony working a role in real life. To use, the valve on the hydrant must be opened carefully (if opened too quickly or slowly, it may damage nearby water pipes) and attach a hose to the pipe. Water will then come out of the hose at very high pressures to aid in extinguishing the fire. The exact pressure varies depending on the hydrant. The hose may then be hooked up to a fire truck for added pressure, or even to break the stream of water off into several different streams. In general, special tools are required to open a fire hydrant's valves to prevent misuse of the water within. Casual use can result in wasting city water. Fire hydrants are usually inspected annually to make sure that they maintain their function and are as safe as possible. If you want to know more about fire hydrants than is provided here, I recommend looking it up on Wikipedia, as I did. Thanks for reading!