The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1914-09-05
THE FIRE
ALARM SYSTEM
Completed and Turned over
to the City. 1t will be De-
monstrated Thursday next

Ournew FIRE ALARM system,
Installed by the Star Electric Co,
of Chicago, with Mr. Edward Par
menter on the ground AZ Superin /
tendent of Construction, was com ,
pleted on Monday of tins week
On Wednesday the official test
was made and the system was ten
dered to the City Council for its
acceptance,
The new system has % stations.
distributed over the town Com
missioner Villermin, approaching
the fact that these did BOT cover
the town as thoroughly IA should
he done for the protection of
homes in outlying districts, order
ed and has had installed ten more
boxes making system of 80 sta
tiOns.
There IS a vast difference in the
methods of handling fire alarms in
a budding village and IA modern
up-to date city. In the former
the idea has ever been to ALARM
the people and leave them to hunt
for the fire. If at night, the ef
fort was to make big noise so a.
to arouse the heavy sleeping vol
unteer fremen. Night prov lers,
who carried pistols in violation of
law. were never hunted down if
they fired these weapons in rapid
succession in aid Of sounding a gen
eraI alarm. Bells and steamw hls,les,
whenever available, were Impress
ed into service, adding to the gen
eral confusion and alarm, without
giving direction. This city has
bad 'em all.
AS time wore on the several en-.
CINE houses were provided with
bells of their own and the bells of
the churches we're excused from
further awakening the sleepers to
contemplate fiery fate. The idea
then obtained force for a central
general alarm This was carried
into effect by Mr.. Geo. w. Dallas,
who mounted the first calliope
whistle. In turn this was amend
ed, so that, after calling every
body up, the whistle was caused
TO sound by blasts, numerals, in
dlcatlng in what district the trOu-
BILE was. The new system takes
the calIiope out Of the whistle,
but still uses it on one straight
note. The tOots are so timed
that one may easily catch the two
numer ais representing the mum
Der OF the box from which the
alarm was turned in.
The upto-date aud modern sys.
TEN would eliminate the whistle
altogether, depending upon the
alarm turned in at the several en-
CINE houses only. But as long as
we must depend in part upon vol
unteer firemen to answer such
calls, there is the probability that
we must submit 10 the noise of the
whistle.
The system installed here is
probably the best in service in
this country. Mr. menter in
formed us that his company was
awarded the contract for install
ing the fire alarm system at the
Panama Exposition in California
at cost of $4,000. The install
ing company in addition shalt be
privileged to remove all of the APP
paratus after the tinal clOsing OF
the Exposition. lie also stater
that this same system has been
installed in the works of the Gen
eral Electric Co.
Mayor Fontelieu announces that
a demonstration of the working
and handling OF the new Fire
Alarm System will be given in
fir, mt of the City Hall on next
Thursday evening At 8 O'Clock
z. NJ. 1t will be to the advantage
of the people to attend.
There have been many predlc
TONS Of an early fall this year.
) The weather on Thursday after.
! noon seemed to be part of the
fulfillmeDt of the forecasts.