Tuesday, September 30, 2014

FIRE ALARM TELEGRAPH



The Cortland Democrat, Friday, January27, 1888.
Fire Alarm Telegraph.
   Next Wednesday afternoon and evening the Gamewell Fire Alarm Telegraph Company will exhibit their system in Firemen's Hall in this village. This system is in use in nearly all the large cities and towns, and is highly recommended wherever it has been adopted. By its use an alarm, with the location of the fire, can be sounded almost instantly, and the annoying confusion that usually takes place after an alarm is entirely avoided and much valuable time saved.
   It is very often the case in this town that several minutes elapse after an alarm is sounded before the department learns the location of the fire, and on many occasions valuable properly is destroyed within these few minutes that might have been saved, had the village been provided with this system.
   A represent of the company was in town on Wednesday, and explained the system to several of our leading citizens. Should the town decide to adopt the system, twenty four fire boxes will be placed in different locations in the village, which would enable an alarm to be given at the moment a fire was discovered. We hope every citizen will be on hand next Wednesday afternoon and evening to witness a test of the system.



The Gamewell Fire Alarm.

   The exhibition at Firemen's Hall, Wednesday afternoon and evening, of the Gamewell Fire Alarm system, drew a large number of our citizens, all of whom were much interested in its workings. The firemen were particularly enthusiastic in its praise, and earnestly expressed the wish that Cortland might have such a system.
   The apparatus consists essentially of a set of batteries and wires similar to the telephone and telegraph systems. Alarms are made from the boxes situated in various parts of the town. These boxes are numbered and a half dozen keys provided for each, which are left in the immediate vicinity. When a fire is discovered the box nearest is unlocked and the alarm given. The electrical current sets the tower strike in motion, and the number of the box is struck four times on the bell in the tower.
   False alarms are provided against in the construction of the lock. The key, once inserted, cannot be withdrawn until released by another key, which is in the hands of the chief or his assistant. The keys are all numbered, and a record kept of them by the chief, so that it is easy to ascertain by whom the alarm was given.
   The galvanometer in the department rooms shows the amount of electrical force in the wires. This consists essentially of a needle passing over a graduated face similar to the steam gauge on boilers. Any variation above or below the normal force is instantly registered, and provision can be at once made for its correction. Should wire in any part of the circuit become broken, an alarm of one stroke is sounded on the bell.
   The system is now in use in over three hundred of the cities in the United States, and is giving the best of satisfaction. Should it be deemed to be for our advantage to have such a system, we make no question that it will be put in soon.—Cortland Democrat, Feb. 3, 1888.
 

Annual Camp Fire.
   Notwithstanding the inclement weather on Wednesday evening, a large number of the veterans of Grover post, No. 98. G. A. R., and the ladies of Grover Relief Corps, met at Dunsmoor's Park to participate in the festivities of the annual camp fire of the post. Long tables had been set in the hall under the superintendence of the ladies of the relief corps, and on them were placed in abundance of the substantials and delicacies which are so important a factor in keeping the lords of creation in good humor.
   The much talked of army bean was present and was attacked with vigor by the veterans and their friends who were present.
   It was 10 o'clock when commander S. L. Palmer took the chair and ordered comrade B. T. Wright to make a speech. Mr. Wright responded in one of his happiest efforts, and was followed by Major Sager, Colonel Place, comrades H. M. Kellogg, Tompkins and Wiles.
   Commander Dayton, of Post Hatch, McLean, was also called out and gave a brief history of his post, and an account of what they were trying to accomplish. H. C. Beebe was leader in the songs, and all that he gave out were sung with a will by the large audience present.
   When the speech making was over, the hands of the clock pointed to an hour far beyond that at which good soldiers are supposed to be in bed, and the company dispersed to their homes, regretting that a camp fire did not come every mouth instead of once in a year.

HERE AND THERE.
   John H. Bacon, of Homer, has taken out letters patent on a hose reel.
   The Homer Wire Fabric Company have [brought] in electric lights to light their new factory.
   A miniature toboggan slide has been built by W. S. Copeland, on his grounds on North Main street.
   Work was resumed in all the departments of the Cortland Wagon Co. last Monday morning.
   The thermometer registered 16 degrees below zero just north of Homer, last Monday.
   Commanding General Woodworth, of Albany, will have charge of the opening exercises of the Canton Fair.
   An extra panel of fifty jurors was drawn last Tuesday morning, to serve during the trial of Maurice Congdon, charged with murder. The case is set down for next Monday.
   Next spring Mr. B. F. Taylor intends to build a handsome new block on the site now occupied by Smith & Bates as a hardware store. The building will be of brick and the front will be trimmed with brown [stone.] Smith & Bates will occupy the store when completed.
   Last Friday evening Mrs. Ardelia John[son] residing on Albany street, in Homer, fell from the top of a long pair of stairs at her home, to the bottom. Some of the oil in the lamp she carried spilled upon the stairs, setting them on fire. She put out the flames before much damage was done although she was quite seriously bruised.
   Frank Pindar, for some time past foreman at the DEMOCRAT office, has resigned that position. He is succeeded by S. H. Strowbridge, formerly editor of the Cortland NEWS. Mr. Strowbridge brings to the discharge of his duties a thorough knowledge of everything that pertains to the printer's art, and will prove himself a worthy successor to Mr. Pindar. The Monitor tenders to Mr. Stowbridge its best wishes for his success.Cortland Monitor.



From Everywhere.

   Ithaca’s test well for salt, natural gas or oil is a failure. It is 3,185 feet and has cost about $5,000.
   George De La Mater, of DeRuyter, has just received back pay to the amount of $1,400, and been granted a pension. He enlisted about six months before the war closed and received $1,000 bounty at the time of his enlistment.
   Two sparrows attacked a rat on the roof of a store at Americus, Ga. The sparrows kept nearing the edge, and at last one of them took a position where the rat would go over if he should spring at it. The rat, maddened by repeated failures, made the fatal leap, struck the hard pavement of the street and while stunned was killed by a negro with a spade.
   Some idea of the scale of the tunneling operations under the bed of the Harlem River, to connection with the new Croton aqueduct, may be formed from the fact that the shaft which has been sunk on the northerly bank of the river to meet the mouth of the tunnel is 429 feet in depth—more than the length of two city blocks. It is 86x17 feet in length and breadth, with two elevators running day and night, each capable of accommodating twenty men. Excavation is going on at the rate of nine feet per day. So far the tunnel has progressed 550 feet into the bed of the river. The distance to be completed is 1,300 feet. The tunnel is lighted by electricity from a dynamo above ground.  

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