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withdrawn until released by another key, which is in the hands of the chief or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.
Fire Alarm Call Box: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_alarm_call_box
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