Description

This object is a white and read standard issue fire hydrant mounted on a concrete base. Fire hose is now missing.

It is a common saying at MIT that getting an education here is like drinking from a fire hose. During the last week of classes for the fall term in 1991, a group of hackers turned that metaphor into reality— sort of. After procuring a real fire hydrant (complete with the cement slab of sidewalk it was mounted on), the group installed it by a water fountain outside of MIT’s largest lecture hall (26-100), and hooked it up with the existing pluming. After getting their metaphorical drink from the fire hose in lecture, students could now turn on the fountain and drink from a literal hydrant.