New York Gamewell Letters N-Z

[paulbalentine]

Rome, New York  is selling more fire alarm boxes on Ebay, I saw in an earlier thread that they had de-commissioned their system around the middle part of 2007. Somebody else had noted that they had some boxes on Ebay at that time, there are approximately 21 +/- on there right now including some real old Gamewell boxes with the cole key guard (1915-1922 era it would appear) they also had one or two of the 1924 style, a few of the '51 style with both styles of quick action door (break glass version and standard version) and I did not at least one Horni box (Horni pre-SAFA but same style) Just in case anybody is in the market for more fire alarm boxes, unknown whether any of them have their guts or not, but some of them appear to be in pretty rough shape, all are looking for a good home.....

[Box 2565]

It appears that the dispatcher is holding a punch card.  My guess would be that the card could be inserted into a reader that would strike the box number shown on the card.  I've never seen anything like this before.

[PFD1]

That is exactly what it is. Go to youtube.com and type in "FDNY 1920's".http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQLlJVagmOs There is a great clip that shows "the new fire alarm system" and takes you from the box being pulled all the way through the response. It's a classic silent film with titles (music and sound effects added). This is one of those cards from my collection.

[magicitybill]

Neat! Was this a pneumatic system that "read" the cards?

[alvin201]

As used in FDNY these are what we called the "towers", large clunky machines that the metal "card" was inserted in.  The holes in the cards were not random, but an early IBM-like binary punchcard system.  As the illustration shows there were a bunch of parallel rods in the upper part of the tower. Every rod corresponded with a matching "contact" at the lower part of the tower.  

After the card was inserted and a lever pulled the upper rods dropped down and when matching a hole in the specific card the rod would pass through to the contact.  if there was no hole at that particular point, the corresponding rod would hit the card, and stop without making "contact" (like a Jacquard loom, a simple binary sistem - either the "contact" or switch was on or off).

[edit by alvin201: I was incorrect in the original text above. Further investigation seems to show that when the lever was pulled, the lower contacts moved up to contact the upper rods (where holes in the card allowed it).  Sorry for my error, it's been decades since I've seen a tower in operating condition.    AT]

The sequence of the holes determined the box number that the transmitter would automatically transmit, and also the bell circuits to the firehouses that would receive the signals.  In FDNY not every alarm was sent to all firehouses, but to a region we called zones.  Zones usually indicated 5-10 or so firehouses, and the particular box would be sent to all houses that may have been due to that location up to at least the second alarm.  For many signals, like an "all hands" 75-2377, greater alarm 33-2377, and others the signal transmitter could be switched off the zones, and signal sent to all firehouses.

In the 1960s-1970s some FDNY Central Offices had the standard Gamewell Transmitters where the digits were selected and appeared in little windows over the selector knob before transmitting; while others had the towers and a "card" for every box in the borough.  When it was very busy, the dispatcher transmitting wouldn't waste time to select zones between each alarm, and would instead select "All" and every alarm went to every firehouse.  At those times we didn't bother with the tower or any automatic transmitter, instead it was faster tapping out the signals one after another on the telegraph key.  You really had to hear this to believe it.  In the firehouses it was nonstop bells!.

The attached picture shows dispatchers at the towers in the Brooklyn Central Office, probably 1950s, 1960s. Courtesy Frank R.'s Brooklyn C O site http://www.flickr.com/photos/12533995@N02/ , also see http://www.fdnewyork.com/

[Box 2565]

Rochester, New York (1960's?)
System by General Railway Signal Corp.
Telephone Board by Stromburg Carlson
O.K., it's not Gamewell but I wanted to show the photo with the New York posts!!

[Buckshot]

Hi Guys
I'm looking for a photo(s) of a watchroom/area desk that shows the telegraph connection to the door opener. Any picture will do.
Much appreciated...Steve

[PFD1]

Steve,

I think the Cincinnati fire museum has a telegraph operated door opener on display. I think I have a picture but it's 35mm and I would have to find it. I'm sure someone here on the board has a picture of it.