Fire Alarms

[fgentges at mindspring.com]

Brian,

Very nice video of the fire alarm telegraph.  These predated the 
telephone and gave the firehouse a place to go to fight the fire.

These telegraphs were a loop around town and each box had its own 
distinctive code.  American District Telegraph and Gamewell were part of 
the early companies.  We still see ADT.

I see some on eBay but none of the registers are cheap but the fire 
boxes are more reasonable.

While I was working at the Pentagon, they changed out the old fire 
telegraph system for a modern electronic one.  The old fire box guts 
were thrown in the trash and I could not resist picking one up.  It is 
not made of fancy brass parts.  It is more like telephone gear from the 
1942 time frame.

Frank


On 3/31/2014 3:50 AM, Brian Hawes wrote:
> Frank,
>
> There is a good demonstration of an early Gamewell system here:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0le4_zBJB4
>
> Not strictly a printer, but a fascinating mechanism just the same. They
> are sometimes referred to as 'registers' if you search e-bay for one.
>
> Brian
>
> p.s. that guy has a fine collection there!
>
>