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Fire hydrants are made the way they are:

1. Their circular barrel is the strongest shape to resist breaking or denting if a car hits it. This shape is also the cheapest way to manufacture them.

2. Most hydrants have 3 water ports: These face up the street (or whatever), down the street, and out into the street. The biggest water port is called a 'steamer' port to connect to the fire truck pump. (Fire trucks used to have steam-operated engines).

3. The knob-looking part on the top of a hydrant is an 'operating nut' that operates a valve deep underground to let water into the hydrant. Most hydrants have no water in them unless they are being used. When this valve is closed to shut off water to the hydrant, it opens a second valve which allows the water in the hydrant to drain into the ground to prevent water inside the hydrant from freezing solid. This valve is normally open.

4. The hydrant water ports are usually between 24" and 36" above the ground. There are two reasons for this:

a. If the ports weren't raised, they would be hard to connect to with snow, brush, or grass around them.

b. The covers on the ports are taken off by the firefighters with a wrench with a long-ish handle. These covers are removed by attaching the wrench and then spinning the wrench around and around until the cover comes off. If the ports were any lower down, the spinning wrench would hit the ground and stop spinning. Sometimes the covers are hard to remove, so the wrench handle has to be long.

5. Various towns prefer different styles of hydrants . . . some hydrants at the top curve up to the operating nut. Some are just flattened on top. Inside, though, they do about the same thing.

6. In places where freezing is not a problem, there may be no drain valve, so these hydrants remain full of water.

7. New hydrants can have a "quick connect" adaptor instead of port covers. The firefighters have the same quick connect attachment on their fire hoses . . . they are fast and easy to connect to, and do not ever become 'stuck'. These are often called, "Stortz" connectors.

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