Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1853-02-10

third story room by the Court House, (he'll
show you how it is done if you call upon
him, for he is very corteous to visitors, J
can, by pressing the proper knob or key,
make these heavy bell hammers strike
any number he chooses. And he makes
them strike the number of our ward.
But how happened the engines and fire.
men to come straight to my house -
There are two or thee thousand houses
in the ward.
The foreman Of every fire company has
key to these useful little iron boxes, and
so when he has got to the ward signi6ed
by the bells, runs to the nearest box, and
sends a private signal to the man in Court
Square, asking "Just sc1tere as the fire ?"
and then he listens while the answer comes
backin little taps, one, taco, three, f0'r, &c,
till he learns the number of the very box
you opened when you gave the alarm in
the first place. Every box has its own
number The bells t0Zled the iremen what
ward, and the telegraph taps whispered
what station box the alarm came from.
| see. But is it worth all this trouble
of wires and machinery and boxes and
batteries
Yes, indeed. Five minutes at the be-
gining of fire are very precious. But
often times, so rapid is this system, an a.
larm will be given, bells rung, boxes con-
suited, fire found, hose procured and
screwed to Cochituate fire plug, and the
fire extinguished, ere the family in dan
ger are well awake. Many a time, the
first thing man knows of his danger by
fire, is that his room is flooded with wa
ter.
But this municipal telegraph is used
for more purposes than one. In case of
riot, the police captains can send for help
to head quarters. To catch all abscond-
ing thief by setting guard at every railroad
and steamboat, can be done in five minutes.
Then, too, very soon all the city clocks
will be hitched together by these wires,
and all of them 60 by one central pendu-
lum, accurately, i've hundred clocks alike
to second
Go it, Boston! We shall soon hear of
newer notions st;ll. The next move viii
oe to introduce into every first class house
city time as well as city water and city
gas. Telegraphic time wires will be intro
duced just as now the water pipes and gas
fixtures are. What millennium of pune
tuality Twenty thousand clocks ticking
together Yes, and next we shall hear
of refinement Of the fire system. Phil
ip's annihilators will be built into the
walls, their nozzles just peeplng out into
the room. Convenient wires will be ar
ranged SO that man walked at midnight
by smell of fire or a red light in his
room, will only need reach out his arm
to the fire knob, and pull it six times
slowly" and instantly ythatwakeful, watch
ful, handy man on Court Square willtouch
lbs wires not to frighten sleep from all
city with his dinging bells, but quietly
he'll touch the wire, and smash go the "a
cid bottles in the ambushed annihilators ;
pbix, squiz, fush-sh-sh, rushes out the
humid, fre-destroying, life preserving va
por. The unreasonable fire surrenders and
goes out. But long ere this, the solid
man has rolled himself back into bed a
gain, tucked the blanket snug about his
chin and fallen asleep, blessing the best,
the very best, the Boston way of putting
out fires