The original inventor of the fire hydrant, commonly seen in the US, is not actually known.
The first hydrant design for funnelling water to put out fires was patented and filed with the US Patent Office sometime prior to 1836, but the original filing was lost in a fire.
At the time the US PTO was housed in a former hotel - previously “Blodgett’s Hotel” - purchased in 1810, and housed the patent office, the post office and the local fire department.
Unfortunately, the fire department’s hose was not well maintained, and nearly 10,000 patent applications were burned - the building collapsed in less than 20 minutes, taking thousands of drawings and models with it.
A call was put out to patent-holders to submit copies of records, of which some 2,800 were resubmitted but any others that were not, including the original fire hydrant design, were voided, and the record of who filed them is lost to time for them.
History’s best guess currently credits Frederick Graff Sr., chief engineer of Philadelphia’s water works system.