Moses Crane (Gamewell Predecessor) 15" fire telegraph Gong
Channel: A. E. Karnes
Date: 2021-05-08

A wonderful new acquisition.

These gongs are built to be directly connected to a pulse or interrupt-style telegraph system, most commonly used for city fire alarm systems.  A fire alarm box with a clockwork mechanism, when pulled, would tap out a numbered code created by its clockwork drive operating a cam wheel that drove an electrical switch open and closed.

This gong would register the numbered code as an auditory signal in the fire houses.  Many mechanisms were meant to be married to it, such as a tickertape register that would log the pulses as punched holes in a paper ribbon, and beautifully made clockwork driven repeating machinery that would then continuously repeat this and other codes in sequence to other departments.