to pull the Fire Station No. 1 hook-and-ladder truck. The contract for $800 specified that the tractor would be equipped with pneumatic front tires and a 35-horsepower Toledo engine, and guaranteed to draw the truck at 20 miles per hour. Further, the engine had to detachable, with the ability to hitch the truck to horses within five minutes. Aeroplane builder Nielsen studied the new science of aviation, including making close examination of planes flown by aviator Louis Paulhan, and had made designs for several aircraft. He did not have the funds to manufacture these designs himself. In 1910, he met businessman Adrian J Merle at an aviation meet in San Francisco. Merle had recently flown as a passenger at a Los Angeles aviation meet, and was determined to start manufacturing aircraft. On January 23, 1910, Nielsen announced to a group of automobile enthusiasts his intention to begin manufacturing aircraft. With financial backing from Adrian and Isadore Merle, Nielsen expected to start construction in weeks. In early February Nielsen announced that he was indeed ready to start construction of airplanes at once, beginning with orders for two biplanes and one monoplane. Nielsen anticipated completion of the first airplane in two months: "a plane for pleasure purposes that will combine speed and safety ... about thirty feet in width, and [with the] capacity of carrying two passengers." Building Merle's biplane took months longer than anticipated, and by September Nielsen was in a race with another local engineer, William Gorham, to build Alameda's first working airplane. Both craft were described as a cross between Curtiss and Farman models. Gorham's plane was described as a 120-pound craft with a six-cylinder, 30 horsepower engine and a 30-foot span. Nielsen's much larger airplane had a 45 horse power six-cylinder engine, 40-foot span, a record wing area of 740 square feet, and weighed about 800 pounds. Nielsen had designed his larger, heavier airplane with the inexperienced aviator in mind: Merle tested Nielsen's aeroplane at the Stockton Airport in September 1910. The biplane was too heavy for sustained flight, only managing to remain airborne for a few hundred feet at a time. The plane was dismantled and kept in Merle's basement for decades afterwards, but never flew again. Nielsen is not reported to have completed any other aircraft. Inventions Firefighting innovations In 1892, after two years with the Alameda Fire Department, Nielsen submitted a patent for an Automatic