Borrowing an idea from the “smoke eaters” of London, who fight incendiary flames with small mobile pumping units strategically distributed throughout the city, the Boston fire department recently demonstrated several portable pumpers capable of pouring a torrent of water. One of them was a motorcycle unit carrying hose lines and using an eight-cylinder engine to deliver 500 gallons of water per minute. Others were pumpers of larger capacity mounted on trailers or small trucks. In one test, three pumps drove 2,572 gallons per minute through fourteen hose lines. In London similar small units, which can be hauled by any automobile or taxicab in emergency, proved able to rush fire-fighting equipment to the scene of a fire in a few minutes, going around bomb craters or traffic jams that would stop large trucks. Boston has ordered four 600 gallon auxiliary pumps for emergency use.