The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-02
WESTERN UNION
 MAKES REPAIRS Work is Now Practically Con-
 pIeted NEARLY S15,OOO EXPENDED Improvements Include New Fixtures and Up-to-Date Electrical lnstru- ments Used in TeIegraphy.
 4ooo Messages Daily.
NEARLY S15,OOO EXPENDED

The extensive repairs and improve ments which have been in progress for several weeks at the Birmingham office of the Western Union Telegraph com pany are now practically completed. The work has cost between 5000 and S5,000, and the office is one Of the nandsomest and best equipped in the southern states.
 The Improvements were made at the suggestion and under the direction of Manager E. E. Williams. but the new storage battery. the wiring and all the electrical work was done under the per sonel supervision of Sam R. Crowder, general electrician for the eastern and southern divisions. MT. Crowder has a number of friends in Birmingham, as he was employed in the local office during the great boom fifteen or sixteen years ago.
 The changes made in the office include the putting in of entirely new fixtures of oak. The floor of the public office is laid in tile of blue and white, the colors by which the company Is usually identi- fed One of the most notable features of the new arrangement is the balcony at the rear of the room where all the instru- ments are placed and where the opera tors do their work. This insures abso- lute privacy, and in addition gives more room below. The space underneath the balcony is utilized for a record room, a handsome toilet for ladies and a private room for messenger boys.
 EIeAclcal Improvements.
 The elecN4eal improvements are the most important of all The new switch board is the latest and best pattern known among the telegraphers, and into this board run 150 wires over which between $500 and 4OO0 messages are handled daily. A battery board is used to regulate the currents from the hundreds of storage batteries on the second floor. Only half | the batteries are used at the same time so that while one half. is charging the other half is discharging.
 New instruments are placed on specially adopted tables to facilitate the receiving and sending of messages An important ] addition to the office is the resistant | l form of electric light in which the resis- tance flaments vary in size. By their attacnments any required strength of i current can be obtained. The switch i board is so arranged with these lamps that whenever a wire gets grounded or for any other reason is out of working or i der, the lamp to which it is attached will light up. notifying those in the office immediately that something is wrong.
 Quadruplex instruments have been in- stalled, by means of which four messages can be sent over one wire tt the same time without interfering with each other. The table tops are adjustable, so that they can either be used for type writers or for writing with pen. An l unique carrying device is ued to convey messages from the balcony to the main office.
 Electrical Clock System.
 The Western Union, in addition to its regular telegraphic business. operates an electric clock system a fire alarm sys- tenn, night watch system, a burglar alarm system and district messenger service. Electric clocks all over the city | are regulated automatically every hour by the large time piece in the office. Fire alarm boxes are placed by the company in various parts of the large buildings ! of the city, and by means of private tel ephone to the fire department, the alarm can be turned more quickly and accurate ly than in any other manner.
 Night watchmen in many large build ings and large plants of the city register at certain times during the night and this is recorded at the Western Union I office. If watchman misses registering, a messenger is dispatched to find out what is the trouble. Usually they find the watchman has dropped off to sleep, but 1t Is seldom this happens, for the men have found there Is absolutely no way to get out of registering at certain intervals, and the boxes are so placed in | the buildings that he must cover the whole premises to get from one to the other.
 Burglar Alarms.
 The new vault of the First National bank will be equipped with the Western Union burglar alarm. It consists of lin- ing the vault with a kind of tin foil, and | the rot1nctttrfup fhfe fin foil hV eyen a