The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-13
MODEL SIGNAL SYSTEMS.
Development of Oakland'S
Fire Alarm and Police
Patrol.
ELECTRIC sTREET.LIGHT COST.
Ingenious Method Employed OF
Keeping Check on a Street.
Light Contractor.

Besides clinging to the time-worn dis
tinction of being the Athens of the Pacific,
Oakland sets up claim to superiority over
all other cities in California in the matter
of the application of electricity to munich
pal uses. AS to the former, other cities are
running Oakland so close a race that the
assumed distinction may now be classed as
| doubtful; but the latter may, perhaps, be
allowed
With two minor exceptions, electricity
has been applied as the motive power to all
| of its street railroads. OF these two excep-
tions, one is operated exclusively by cable,
the other by cable or electricity, optionally.
! Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and Sacra-
mento adapted electricity to street rail-
reading at an earlier date than Oakland,
| bull none of them have since made such ex-
| traordinary developments in this direction
as that city. The first electric railroad
constructed i'll Oakland was finished less
than five years ago. Now it is literally grid
! ironed with electric street railroads, which
reach out into the suburbs in all directions
| There are at least fifty miles of we'll
| equipped electric railroads running IN and
out of Oakland at the present time, fur
nishing rapid means of transit to and from
the thriving towns and villages clustering
around it. But these electric street rail-
| roads have been developed by private en-
terprise and are merely subject to munich
pal police jurisdiction by virtue of the
franchises which the municipality granted
their incorporators.
Few cities in the country are better
equipped than Oakland now is in the mat
ter of electric street-lighting or which pos
sesses a more perfect fire alarm and police
patrol telegraph system. These are adapta-
tons of electricity to public uses which
have been developed solely through the
patronage or the direct enterprise of the
municipality itself.
Street-lighting and the policing of the
city for the protection of its inhabitants
and their property against the depreda-
tions of thieves and the ravages of fire are
so intimately associated in Oakland that
the supervision of both has been entrusted
to the same officer-to George Carleton,
city electrician. The lighting of the public
streets is done under contract by the Oak
land Gas Light and Heat Company but
the city electrician is responsible for the
systematic location of the lights, and he is
also required to see that the contract is
faithfully executed
The are at present 900 candle-power
(nominal) electric arc lights burning every
night in Oakland, Illuminating the greater
portion of the twelve square miles of terri
tory embraced within its boundaries. The
gas lamp has almost become "a light of
other days" 1t sheds its feeble rays only
in the outlying districts to which the cleo
tric-light circuits have not yet been eX-
tended, but every year witnesses a mate
rial diminution in its numbers. and in the
course OF another year or two the gas lamp
will be a thing of the past in Oakland.
Of course such a system of street light
ing costs money. 1t cost the city formerly
for street lighting with gas less than $780,,
600 year. During the fiscal year 1889-S0
it cost $33, 237 % for com bination of gas
and electric lighting. The expense of
street lighting during the calendar year of
1894 was $64 1898 81 for electric arc lights
and S5S1S "a for gas lamps. Miscellaneous
expenses brought the same total of the
cost of street lighting last year to $70,-
SS2 25 or over double what the service cost
four wears before. But it should not be
overlooked that the city gets in return a
hundred-fold more light for its money than
it did formerly.
The system of the electrical department
of Oakland is worth describing in some
detail, because it is generally recognized
throughout the country as model worthy
of imitation by other municipalities, all of
which is evidenced by the volume of in
curing correspondence concerning it re-
ceived from abroad. The mechanical
ture in the office of the City Electrician in
the form of two maps OF the city hanging
on opposite walls OF the room. One of
them illustrates the Fire and Police Patrol
telegraph systems, which are in a measure
com bined, and the other shows the cleo
trio light lines in detail. The former are
owned in the major part by the munich
pality; the latter are the property of the
Oakland Gas, Light and Heat Company,
which corporation has the contract for
street lighting.
Both systems have, however, been de-
veloped by the city electrician. The two
maps constitute complete record of the
Electrician Carleton, "parts of my system
of bookkeeping" Each map shows every
wire, pole, box (tire alarm or police patrol
signal or telephone), and electric light as
actually stretched and located in each sys-
tenn and every pole is marked and num-
bered SO that its ownership and relation
to either system can be at once identified.
Fire alarm circuits are shown by red strings,
blue strings indicate the police patrol tele
graph wires. Every pole in these systems
and every light in the electric light circuit
is represented by brass rail, the head of
which is colored to indicate it's ownership.
Yellow tops belong to the Electric Light
Company, white tops to the telephone
company, black tops to the Postal Tele-
graph Company, and red tops to the city.
The location of the various call boxes and
telephone stations in the systems are in
dicated by differently colored tags and red
pyramids mark the location of the several
engine-houses. The city's lots are num-
bered and lndexed accordingly on the map.
If anything happens to any pole the city
electrician knows just where to dispatch
the repairer as soon as the number is re-
ported to him.
The police patrol telegraph system is
one of the most perfect in the country. 1t
has taken ten years to bring it up to its
present state of perfection. Many of the
appliances attached to it are Electrician
Carleton S own inventions and are used ex-
clusively in Oakland. Oakland, it may be
said, was the third city in the United States
to adopt the police patrol system. Chicago
was the first to adopt it; then came Phila-
delphia; Oakland followed, and then Bos-
ton, the Athens of the East. fell in line.
Almost every city in the country has it
now. San Francisco copied its police pa
troll system in a measure from Oakland.
The system is a wonderfully useful add
junct to the police service. If it were
wiped out of existence the police force
would have to be doubled at once. Two
patrol wagons are attached to the service,
which perform the functions of hospital
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