The Portland daily press., 1891-03-20
MUNICIPAL REPORTS.
CITY ELECTRICIANS REPORT.

CITY ELECTRICIAN's REPORT.
Early In the yea 1890 the committee on
electrical appliances was ordered by the
City Council to contract with the Gamewell
Fire Alarm Telegraph Company Of New
for one eight-circuit non-inteI ference re-
peater and other office fixtures needed The
apparatus Is what the city has needed for a
long time (or several years at lasD and In my
Judgment 1t will prove great benefit. The
repeater is mountaineering from one circuit
to another unless two boxes are pulled at the
same instant. which will not probably hap
pen once in hundreds of times, and after the
old style of boxes are removed and modern
ones put In (Which are also mountaineering
It seems to me that we shall have a perfect
fire alarm system. Until this Is done we
shall have some mixed alarms when two or
more boxes are pulled on the same circuit.
hope to see all Of the old boxes removed the
coming year. A few additional boxes ara
needed, and, of course, will receive the at
tention OF the committee as. soon as possible.
One small gong has been put into the chief
engineers ONCE, two large g0Dgs have been
purchased and put into the Hayes aud Bran
hall Hook and Ladder houses to take the
place of two that were unreliable. Twelve
tappers have been added to the Taper cir
cults. About ten miles Of line wire have
been put up the past year; part Of it was
used for new work extending the lines and
part OF 1t was rsed to renew old lines. A
few miles OF wire are wanted to renew what
old wire there Is lett In the fire alarm cir
cults. Fifteen new poles have been set the
past year to get wires off from housetops.
The Telephone and Commercial Union
Telegraph companies have set a large num-
Der Of poles the past year that have benefit
ted the city in getting wires from house,
tops to poles. Twenty street signal boxes
were ordered equipped with auxiliary key
boxes; this work Is nearly completed. l
think 1t good system to try and Ii it does
not prove benefit 1t can be discontinued in
very short time.
The Auxiliary Fire Alarm Company of
Maine, by permission of the city, have taken
out twenty-one of our old street signal boxes
and put in the same number of Gamewell
made because 1t was not thought safe by the
electrician (after trial. to have the machin-
cry necessary to operate the old boxes put
into them. These new boxes. In my judg-
ment. should be paid for by the city at the
proper time. The work done by this COM
pany is all good so far as know. and l can
not see why the systems will cause much
trouble, and at times will do very much
good.
During the past year there has been con-
siderable building and rebuilding Of tele-
graph, telephone and electric light lines, and
the construction of all has been left with the
city electrician to look after. Late in the
year an ordinance was passed to have all
wires and fixtures inspected and tagged, and
to have all dead wires removed; also to have
map of all lines kept In the electricians
office. My judgment is that wires and fix
lures cannot be too we'll looked after for the
safety of our city and citizens. believe the
cause of so few accidents In our city is be.
cause the city has had the construction of its
electrical lines so well looked after. Well
constructed lines are far cheaper In the end,
and OF course they are much safer.
Only one accident has occurred, to my
knowledge, during the past year. This was
the killing of three valuable horses belong
ing to the Portland Street Railroad Company
caused by a telephone wire dropping down
upon the alternating wire OF the ConsOlidat.
ed Electric Light Company, near the Union
station, during heavy storm, December IT.
IL, 1890. The expense of maintaining the
ire alarm, telegraph and police signal system
to March 1st. 1891, is as follows: