History
The tool was designed by and named after a New York City Fire Department First Deputy Chief named Hugh Halligan in 1948. Later that year the first prototype of the Halligan bar was made by Peter Clarke (a blacksmith). Despite being invented by one of its members, the FDNY did not initially purchase the tool because of a perceived conflict of interest. The City of Boston Fire Department was the first major customer of the Halligan, purchasing one for every fire company in the city. The tool was popular enough that members of New York ladder companies went out and bought it with their own money until the department ultimately decided to purchase the tool.
Read more about this topic: Halligan Bar
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—Newt Gingrich (b. 1943)
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“The principle office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–117)