The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-03-21
CITY ELEcTRlclAN's REPORT.
The Work which Has Been Done or
should he Done In This Department.

shoald he Done in This Department.
Levi L. Cummings. city electrician,
has made public his annual report which
is, In substance, as follows;.
The condition Of the electrical nppara-
tus belonging to the city is good and lie
operation continues TO give satisfaction.
In no one year since our fire alarm sys-
TEN was installed, has there been 90 many
bell alarms as during the yenr just clos
ing, and 1t is great satisfaction to say
that there have not been one dollars
worth of property lost on account of the
fire alarms not working.
Our apparatus is all made first class
and we intend to have the lines wer-built
and to keep them in the best condition
possible, because most OF our trouble Is
on the lines. To do this requires a large
amount of work and care.
There have been added to the fire alarm
system the past year one gong in tho
chief ngineer's on &C and four tire alarm
boxes rs follows: No. 4s at the corner Of
Congress and Franklin streets; No. 10
at the corner of Congress and Gilman
streets, No. Al at the Falmouth hotel,
(this Is a private box); No. 451 at the
corner of Fore and Central streets There
has also been a number of tappers added
to the Taper circuit and about five miles
Of wire put up, mostly to renew old
wires, and a terminal board at the police
! station.
BY order of the committee on electrical
appliances have extended our IRE
alarm system underground from Congress
and Exchange streets to Fore street, and
on Fore street to Cross street and the po-
lice signal service underground from
| terminal board in the police station down
Market street to Milk street, Milk street
to Exchange street. Exchange street to
Fore street to Cross street and on Middle
street from Market street to Deer street.
About $50 feet of three.inch pipe has
been laid on Exchange and Fore streets
to connect manhole of the Postal Iele-
graph with manhols OF the Telephone
company.
Three fire alarm posts and three test
posts have been used on the fire alarm
system. Five test posts and one police
box post has been used In the police sys.
TEN and pipes put in to connect the same
with manholes.
Our underground work continues to
give satisfaction and needs to be extend
ed until we get as many Of our wires as
possible underground.
The Postal Telegraph company has put
its wires underground on Myrtle and
Market streets and taken down the pole
line. hope others will follow and morr
poles will be taken down. If they are
not taken down and severe stor m
should come Ian afraid they will fall
down.
The annexation of the city OF Deering
to Portland brings to this department IA
| street signal boxes, three bell strikers, 70
gongs and about Is miles Of wire, and 1t
| will require about ten miles Of wire TO
bring that system:t the city building in
good shape. Deering now has five cir
cults In the fire alarm system and it
| needs to be in three circuits at least to be
safe when it Is connected with the cen
trail office. : UntilIwe get our new office
apparatus we shall have to use 1t in two
circuits.
This addition will bring large amount
of work to lie done in this department
during the coming year. We have al
ready run four wires from our central
office to Woodfords and are getting ready
to change the number of the boxes to cor
respond with the Portland system, also
to change the locks and keys.
The fire alarm boxes in Deering are far
apart and quite number of street sig
nal boxes must be added to that section
of the citylas soon as possible. Our police
signal system will have to be extended to
give that branch Of service what is need
ed.
Mr.. Cummings closes his report by
thanking his assistants, Messrs. Barnes
ana Sweeney, and the chief engineer OF
the fire department, and the committee on
electrical appliances.