To look at the history of the telegraph fire alarm, one must go way back to the 1700’s. Back then any organized fire department used church bells to alert its firefighters of a fire. However, there were times when the church bells would not ring. There is a story that the city of New Orleans, Louisiana lost 900 buildings in 1788 because the priests would not allow church bells to sound on Good Friday. Since the church bells didn’t ring, no organized firefighting was done until it was too late. Aside from Church bells, there were bells at government buildings that would sound also.
The most famous bell to alert firefighters was the Liberty Bell. Yes, the same Liberty Bell in Philadelphia was used to notify firefighters, before it rang out for freedom.
Other means to notify firefighters of a fire ranged from shooting guns, to using moose horns, to hitting old railroad locomotive tires with a hammer. Some towns had night watchmen that would patrol the streets. Upon discovering a fire, they would shake a wooden rattle. Evidently, it was loud enough to wake people up. Upon hearing the rattle, the homeowners would throw their leather buckets outside for volunteers to pick up and start a bucket brigade.
Some larger cities had watch towers. Watchmen would look around a city from up high in a tower. Each tower had a number assigned to it, a flag and a lantern. When a watchman would see smoke or fire, he would sound his number and position his flag (if daytime) or lantern (at nighttime) to the direction of the fire. Other watchmen would hear his bell sounding and then ring his bell, repeating the tower number and also positioning his lantern to the direction of the fire. In some cities, the lanterns could be different colors, representing different directions. Soon, the bell towers were tied in together via telegraph lines.
Many historians credit Charles Robinson of New York for using the telegraph to transmit fire alarms to the bell towers. However, it was William Ellery Channing, a physician from Massachusetts, who is credited with the design and perfection of the first telegraph fire alarm box system. On May 30, 1845 Dr. William F. Channing of Boston, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University, published an article in the Boston Daily Advertiser describing in general terms how a practical fire alarm telegraph system in the city of Boston could be constructed.
Although he was a physician, his interest was aimed more at electricity and magnetism. He envisioned a system of fire boxes and overhead telegraph lines leading to the police and a central fire alarm office. So much so that he attempted to convince the City of Boston to consider a system such as this. The city initially turned down his idea.
Channing partnered up with Moses G. Farmer who was considered by many to be an expert electrical mechanic. But what really interested Channing was Moses’ bell striking device. In 1848, the City of Boston decided to investigate the potential of this new fire alarm system. The City council later voted for funds to construct two of the bell striking machines that would strike the bells from distant points. One was installed in City Hall. The other in New York City. When the operator in New York open and closed the circuit, the bell in Boston’s City Hall rang.
Three years later in 1851, the city of Boston appropriated $10,000 for the construction of Channing & Farmer’s fire alarm system, it was based upon Channing’s plan he devised along with his associate, Moses G. Farmer, a telegraphic engineer. This was to be the first fire alarm telegraph system of its type in the world.
In Boston MA, 1852, Dr. William Channing and Moses Farmer develop the first, practical fire alarm system using the telegraph system to pinpoint the location of and communicate a fire alarm. The completed system was placed in service at 12 noon on April 28, 1852 with the first fire alarm office located in the City Building at Court Square and Williams Court. Staff included a superintendent, fire alarm operators and repairmen. These were the first positions of their type in the world.
The original system had 40 street boxes on 3 box circuits and 19 alarm bells on the three circuits. All of the boxes were of the manual crank type with locked outside doors, and the boxes were painted black. The first sector type boxes, started by simply pulling the hook, were introduced experimentally in 1864.
The very first call from this system was On April 29, 1852, at 20:25 hours, when a fire was located inside a barber shop. Mr. J.H. Goodale ran to the box at a church where District 1, Station 7 was located. He turned the box lever faster than what the system could register. He did not hear the alarm bells, so he went to the fire alarm office to report the fire. Clearly this new system did have its glitches which needed to be worked out, and they were.
For a brief overview, the internal mechanisms of a fire alarm box are simple in concept, yet intricate in design and operation. The concept allows a single action to set in motion a series of actions in order to send out a signal. The single action is the ‘pulling’ of the hook on the outside of the fire box. This downward action pushes a lever on the mechanism and this in turn activates the box. The mechanism is designed somewhat similar to a watch or clock, with internal springs, gears, contacts, and electrical components. Although the mechanism does transmit an electrical signal, similar to Morse Code, the mechanism itself does not require an electrical power source in order to operate. Each box has its own distinctive number. When the box was pulled or “hooked” a signal is sent across a series of wires to the fire communications center (basically a telegraph office), punched a ticker tape and rang the gong bell according to the number that was hooked. A file system containing a card with a planned response to an incident type for that box number was pulled out and the companies were turned out accordingly. In areas with volunteer departments, outdoor fire horns, whistles and air-raid-type sirens sounded the box number very loud and clear.
For example, let’s say a fire alarm box is pulled at Maple and 4th streets, and it is labeled as Box 4-5. The box would automatically transmit that number to the communication center in somewhat of an automatic “Morse code” system that looks like this:
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The card for Box 4-5 (in the communications center) would contain the list of apparatus from various nearby fire stations that should be dispatched to the fire.
So, In 1854, Dr. Channing and Mr. Farmer formally apply for a patent for the “Electromagnetic Fire Alarm Telegraph for Cities”.
In March 1855, Channing gave a lecture at the Smithsonian Institute on The American Fire Alarm Telegraph. In the audience was John Nelson Gamewell, a South Carolina Postmaster and telegraph company agent. Gamewell was a bit of a telegraph buff and was quite interested in Channing’s speech. Gamewell returned home to South Carolina and sought out his friend James Dunlap, who financed Gamewell’s enthusiasm for the purchasing rights for installation of systems in the Southern United States. A few years later, Gamewell bought all the rights for about $30,000.
In Boston, a new fire alarm office with improved equipment was placed into service on December 26, 1865 in the top story of the then-new City Hall building at 45 School Street. Here, as was the case at the Court Square office, all the circuits entered the office overhead, all outside wiring being of the aerial type. On December 11, 1868 the purchase and delivery of the sector type boxes was authorized and within a short time all of the original crank type units were replaced with the hook style boxes. To provide more rapid access to the boxes for the purpose of giving alarms, the first keyless (T-handle) door was placed in service, on Box No. 42 at the intersection of Tremont and Winter Streets on April 16, 1881. On May 2, 1881 it was ordered that fire alarm boxes in the city were to be painted red instead of black, although for a period of time in the 1970’s-1980’s, some boxes were painted lime-green as were many pieces of fire apparatus.
At the time, Gamewell himself was not fairing very well. He had only sold a few systems, and with the start of the Civil War, the nations focus shifted. In addition, his investor Dunlap, refused to put another cent into Gamewell’s fire box system.
During the Civil War, the government confiscated all of the patents for the fire alarm box system. Penniless, Gamewell moved his family to Hackensack, NJ in 1866.
In 1867, Mr. John F. Kennard purchases the Fire Alarm Telegraph patents and returns them back to John N. Gamewell forming a partnership. Thus, Kennard & Company was established in Newton Upper Falls, Massachusetts to manufacture the fire alarm systems.
Gamewell Fire Alarm Telegraph Company formed in 1879 with John N. Gamewell as proprietor, using the iconic fist holding lightning bolts as registered as trademark.
Meanwhile, other fire alarm companies were forming. But in 1910 it was Gamewell’s company that ended up cornering the market as he captured about 95% of the total market share.
In today’s world, the only company still manufacturing telegraph fire alarm boxes is the Gamewell Company, owned by Honeywell, Inc. While no one is purchasing new complete telegraph fire alarm systems, there are some towns that still add to their existing systems.
Thus, there is still a need for Gamewell to produce these boxes.
baratheonpilled
2087
dededos
kianamaiart
andulkaphoto
tangentwithtanner
annaxmalina
