The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-05-06
DECRBPIT BELL TOWERS
They Have Stood a Quarter
Century Almost With
out Repair.
FALSE ALARMS CAUSED.
Showers of Rust Scale and ROtteB
Chips, Breaking Chains and
Other Signs of Ruin.

VIVA NA6 ND VA AhutAs
The report of Superintendent Speicher
OF the Fire Alarm Telegraph System Of
the City Fire Department, concerning tine
dilapidated condition of the bell towers,
has created considerable talk In fire cirs
cles. 1t was known that these towers
were In general somewhat shaky. bus
none but those employed Immediately
about them knew what actual wrecks
they were.
One of the head officials said yesterday
1t would require at least five or six thou-
sand dollars to put them in proper condi-
tion, and then it would probably be only
year or SO before they would again need
repairing. The official Is inclined to the
opinion that the city would be far better
of by establishing permanent DEPART
ment, which would cost only few thou
sand dollars more than the five or six
thousand necessary to put the towers in
proper condition, and thus do away alto
gether with the towers. The bell towers
to locate fires by the alarms rung out
from them.
WHO is TO BLAME?
AS to who is responsible for the dilapt-
dated condition of these towers 1t Is
somewhat difficult to say. The Fire Com
missioners will naturally lay it upon the
Street and Water Commissioners, who.
under the new law, have control of re-
pairs to the property of all the municipal
departments, and who demanded, after
the last apportionment of the tax moneys
by the Financiers, the 81, 600 appropriated
to the Fire Board thrSug mistake for
repairs. The Street ana Water Commits
sloners will naturally say the amount ap-
propriated would nearly all have been
needed in putting the towers in proper
condition, and the more urgent repairs TO
the fire ethouses had to be first attended to.
A reporter of The JERSEY CITY NEWS
yesterday inspected three of the four
towers. The one at No. Truck House in
Webster, avenue is said to be all right.
But it was difficult for the re-
porter to believe the evidence
of his own eyes while inspect
ing the Newark avenue bell tower which
is the centre of the fire alarm system.
Superintendent Speicher kindly explained
the workings of the various electrical in-
struments. Few of the many thousand
persons who daily pass and repass the
dilapidatedi old tower that shoots up from
the roof of one story restaurant have
any idea of tthe display of delicate instru-
ments. BATTERIES and other electrical
parapnernaliAa with which the Superin-
tendent's headquarters are equipped.
FALLING TO PIECES
The tower mas fasep in use about
twenty-five Sand Xn all that time
the repairs nao a@ IL Is apbps papdIy
through yvltGh the delicatea ins,
struments transmit the views TO the great
9.e69 pound bell in the tower looks more
like well-digging apparatus than what
one would naturally expect to find mt the
headquarters Of a city's system of fire
oil fol ia cnvarpA with
impromptu sort of canopy to keep off
the scales of rust, and rotten splinters
that fall in showers every time the great
bell rings out Its sonorous alarm. Cracks
and crevices in the tower are abundant
and some of them. I imagine, would
almost allow an astronomer at
night to view an entire constellation
of stars in the heavens. The old
machine is rickety, and when the shaky
tower rocks and trembles during the
sending out of an alarm it occasionally
flies almost to pieces. Bolts shoot out and
the 1000 pound weights are at times out
of. gear, occasionally producing change
in the alarm from what the transmitting
instruments originally intended TO COM
municate to the old bell. The tower Is
connected with the Superintendent's main
Office by a short suspension bridge, and
this bridge has already commenced to
pull away from the main ofnce.
For this condition of affairs Superin-
tendent Speicher is in no wise to blame.
He Is an expert electrician, whose knowl-
edge of his business the Fire Comnlis&
sioners have always cordially acknowi-
edged. He has himself invented system
of delicate machines which record the
strokes of the great bell by the punching
of holes in tape that runs through ma
chine, something after the ticker" tele-
graph idea, and transmits the alarms to
the various engine and truck house gongs
long before the big bell has ceased
to ring out its alarm 70 the
Buffalo, Engines are frequently seen
dashing along the streets in RESPONSE 10
the engine house gong alarm while the
big bell is still directing the Buffsloes as
to the location of the fire. II is claimed
that Jersey City is the only city in the
United States where the Buffalo system
is in vogue, in possession of ELECTRICAL
machinery that accomplishes these rec
suits. Not only this, but should the metz
work of wires burn out the board upon
which the machines rest, there Is wooden
tablet on the wall near by filled with
little gongs and punchers that will still
enable the Superintendent to sent out the
proper alarm to the various station
houses.
OTHER DECREPIT TOWERS.
The tower at No. Engine House.
Summit avenue, opposite st. Paups
and the one at No. Truck
House in Communipaw avenue, though
constructed entirely of iron. are in almost
as dilapidated condition as that of the
Newark avenue tower. The framework
OF both is somewhat delicate anyhow, and
no repairs have been made TO them since
they were erected about twenty-three
years ago. The chains holding the
weights at the Summit avenue tower fre-
quently break, aud firemen are some-
what wary about climbing either of these
towers to wind up the alarms.
While the Com missioners were In ses-
sion Monday night. the chains snapped at
the tower in Summit avenue. and It was
some time before the ungeared machinery
was through tapping the big bell at the
top.