PERRY

UNITED KINGDOM (see also List of Individuals)

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3.5.1837 Chudleigh/UK - 14.5.1930 Lachute/CA

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William Perry left England with his parents in 1845 for Canada. He was educated in Montreal and afterwards became an apprentice in a machine shop there. He began to specialize in pump design. In course of time he had installed a large number of pump units. He also arranged the water supply for the troops of Valcartier and superintended its completion during the Great War. Perry was one of the eldest members of the American Water Works Association and there has taken an active interest in its organization. This association was founded in 1884 and Perry joined in 1886.

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Perry was all through his career interested in pumping machinery, both hand and steam and was the oldest Canadian pump expert. In the 1860s, he and his father built one of the largest hand pumping fire engines worked by 50 men for Toronto. His father built the pump which was awarded first prize and a gold medal at the World's Fair in London in 1851. In 1881 Perry was consulted by a pump manufacturer of London on a steam fire engine operated by one man with a much larger pumping capacity than 30 years before. As an engineer, Perry was particularly interested in the volunteer fire brigades, which was a city's only protection against dangerous conflagrations. There were no hydrants in the 19th century and firemen had to carry water from wells to quench the flames. The only method used to call out the fire brigade then was by a bugle being blown. The volunteers then rushed out to the engine and hauled their apparatus to the scene of fire. At times, the members confiscated passing horses to aid them in getting the engines to the fire.

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_{Anonymous (1927). William Perry celebrates ninetieth birthday. The Canadian Engineer}

_{52(18): 486. P}

_{Anonymous (1930). William Perry. The Canadian Engineer 58(22): 634. P}