The morning journal-courier., 1908-03-02
AN ANCIENT SYSTEM
Fire Telegraph Apparatus Should be in Fireproof
 Building.
MANY SERIOUS DEFECTS
In Certain Contingencies When Box is Pulled No Alarm Will be
 Rung in.

! That this city was one of the first to
 install the Gamewell fire alarm system ] is fact that may not be generally
 known, but such is the case. The sys- i tenn was installed in New Haven on i October 3, 1868. with thirty boxes in
 circuit. Since the city hall was built,
 the central station has been located
 in the present quarters. Therein lies
 a great danger. fire n the city hall
 would irreparaby damage the local
 system.
 In the first place the central fire
 alarm apparatus should be located in a
 fire proof building. This the present
 quarters certainly are not A fire, in |
 itself not disastrous one on the up-
 per floors of the city hall, on account |
 of the water used in extinguishing 1t |
 would tie up the entire system. A fire |
 in the basement would burn up the |
 insulation of the apparatus, and do |
 just as much, if not more, damage than
 the water. The wires from the outside
 circuits come through the basement of
 the police building and a fire there
 would have a bad effect on the fire
 alarm system, although it would prob-
 ably not take as many weeks to get |
 the apparatus into working order as in |
 either of the other two contingencies,
 for indeed If either fire or water should
 reach the alarm telegraph apparatus at
 all it would in ninety-nine cases out
 of hundred require installing an en-
 tire new set of instruments.
 t.t,
 learned the importance Of keeping its
 alarm apparatus in a fire proof build
 ing The city hall where the central
 station was located, burned down, and
 what was left of fire alarm system
 after the fire was not worth mention
 ing. The system Is not in order yet,
 and it will be sometime before that
 city will have fire protection, that Is,
 so far as fire alarm telegraph is con
 cerned, that 1t did a month ago Newark has only recently erected a building for the exclusive use of the fire department heads and for the fire alarm telegraph apparatus, Provi
 dence has such building. Boston has one of similar character Besides being fire proofcd the central station in that city Is doubly safe guarded In case of a fire in the immediate vicln- ity of this structure 1t can be envel- oped in a blanket of water pipes with holes in them extending all around the top of the station This Is as much a protection from heat due to the burn N ing of neighboring building, as from actual flame,
 Such fire proof structure as the board of fire commissioners, the de- partment heads and the superintendent N of the fire alarm system would like to have, would cost at the maximum, not more than s25,OOo.
 fl Such a building as Superintendent II James Grant has in mind would he large enough to quarter the department
 offices besides the fire alarm telegraph : apparatus In his annual report for t several years past, MT. Grant has rec
 commended the installation of the ap- n paratus In fire proof quarters, and has if pointed out the danger in not doing SO V The chief and the fire commissioners n have urged that the formers recorn- Y mendations be carried out, but thus faf e In vain.
 r But the danger of fire to the local n fire telegraph system is not the only 'f one that besets it. The New Haven d system is wofully antlquated and out e of date. Some of the apparatus in- B. stalled in 1888 is still doing service to- y day. Not since 1885 has any new ap- IT paratus been installed. In that year r. a repeater was added to the system r. As has been before stated the system IT started with thirty boxes. There are le now 225 boxes in circuit. When the e system was overhauled in 1885 and D the repeater added there were in m round numbers no boxes, and the It system was laid out on l1o box ,r basis. To-day there are 225 boxes r crowded on to apparatus Intended for z, 110 boxes. Thus the sum and sub /" stance of it all is that the local sys- ,e tenn is overworked and as with hu- 10 man beings, overworked apparatus " will break down in time. There is no ,' telling when the local service will fail ~ to respond. A break is liable to occur 's at any time, and perverse fate is liable -. to have the break come at critical as time. The system has not broken r down since 1882, when a sleet storm n tied it up.
 There should be but ten boxes on a Id circuit while in this city there are is none on which there are less thap
 twenty. In more than one instance n, there are twety-six, and in one case m twenty on a circuit intended to e carry ten boxes The National Board ,b of Fire Underwriters is opposed to of systems having more than ten boxes ye on a circuit. although their opposi- sd tion does not reach the strenuous ze point unless there are twelve or more ,e on line.
 io The present system has another tn very serious defect which is that If
 box is pulled while another one l! w sounding the pulling of the second an box is not recorded. Such case may ne seem suppositious. but it is not. IT 1- 1S96 on November |. box 625 wal or pulled. While this alarm was sound m ing box 57 on State street was pulled h. No record of this was made at thu es central station The first that va h. known of the fire was when anothei mt alarm was rung in six or seven min Is. utes later In those few minutes fir v- can gain great headHay. and fl diC of in that case, the fire raging 50 fierce