The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-01-16
FIRE ALARM FOR HOTELS.

| The burning of the Newhall House at
Milwaukee on Wednesday has caused a
| feeling of alarm in the minds of many of
those who live in hotels, and the writer of
| the following letter makes a suggestion as
| to possible use of the call-bells now in
use, which. in the opinion of experts is
practicable. Even in Rock Island, where
few apprehensions of fatalities in case of
the burning of one of our hotels have been
INDUCED in, there is growing impression
that every hotel should be equipped with
fire escapes, of some sort, and no better
time than the present can be found for
agitating the question. In the Globe
Hotel. Zone of the leading hotels of SYRIA
cuse, n. Y } each room is provided with
coil of rope, with strong hooks at one
end. In the event of fire the guest can
fasten the hooks under the window sill in
side the room, or elsewhere, and safely
descend to the ground by sliding down
the rope. But here rs the letter referred
to.
To the Editor of the World
SIR: [ have lived for the last fifteen
years in a hotel and at the present time
have a room on the sixth floor of well
known house. 1t is as fireproof as any
hotel can well be made; has three separate
staiiways from the top to the bottom. Its
appliances to extinguish fires are as good
as any have ever seen. Its night clerk
and watchmen are sober and careful men.
But If ever fire should break out in the
basement, where the kitchens are, how are
the occupants of the rooms on the upper
floors to know it? For the watchman can
not be expected to alarm the occupants of |
all the rooms, even if he knew what rooms |
were occupied, and the possible result |
might be that many would be suffocated or |
overpowered with smoke before they were
aware of their danger. 1t would therefore |
seem proper suggestion to make, that in |
all rooms there should be an alarm bell or |
gong which the clerk on duty at the time |
could start and thus inform every guest or |
servant of the impending danger. AS to |
the wire necessary, is it not possible to use |
that of the call bells from each room by |
simply reversing the current of electricity |
and making the button and framework of |
the same in each room of bell metalp
SIXTH FLOOR.
New York, January IL.
A World reporter was yesterday sent to |
find out how the hotels of New York COM
pared with those of other cities in regard |
to safety from fire. At the office of the |
inspector of buildings it was said that, as |
a rule, the New York hotels are prepared |
with better means of escape than those |
outside the city This, it was said. was on |
account of the stringency of the laws
relating to exits and fire apparatus. At |
the office of the British Electril Light |
Company Ne. 853 Broadway, it was said |
that it was possible to use the wires of the
electric bells of the hotels tor communi- /
eating to gongs, as suggested by the writ
er of the above communication.
At the board of fire underwriters Mr. |
Harrison said: Just what the state of the
hotels are at present we are unable to say,
as there has not been a formal examina-
ton of them made since 1875. That ex-
animation showed that there was not one
hotel in the city without defects; some had
open elevators, others had swinging gas
jets and others frame mansard roofs. |
Many of these defects have been remedied