The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 88

a Will Bet 11 -CV CTKrJ II iMiJi4 i fCSV ZZs? 'Hr I'H Mlk W7 3 1 sJ S3 1 a Top. Jjett Apparattu from the Central Station ready to b. Tup. Right Wiliam Dy at desk. Middle.

Left Slerert. Middle (In Front of Board) Philip Stokes. Edward Dnlel and Emll Yollmer- Mlddle (Mm at Desk) Emll Vollnier (seated). 1lovd Puser (standing) and William G. Dey at telephone.

Bottom (In Room) txmis Kiaael (at desk) and George slerert at the board. In Bottom Group Top, George Sfevert and James Lewis; bottom, Llovd Posey and Txrals KlateL And What Happens Then Within Seconds By C. COLT. THE clearing house for Lou-isvilU fire Alarms. That is what the "Are tower" in the City Hall Annex, over which William G.

Dey presides, might be ealled. Better still, you might term ft the nervous system of the citys fire-fighting force, with nerves reaching out to all alarm boxes, electric nerves which respond to sensations by ringing buzzers and gVmgs, flashing bulbs, and making imprints on moving slips of paper. Then, too, these nerves stretch to every fire-fighting unit in the city, to newspaper offices and to every office or home equipped with a gong or buzzer which announces a fire. They react swiftly, for from the time an alarm is sounded in a firebox to the time the engines are on their way is, as a rule, only about thirty seconds. This is possible for the simple reason that trained men preside over this nervous system, keeping it always in shape, making it always work at top speed, serving the city and its people in the best possible manner.

This clearing house is not a "fire-tower at all. It is a big room located on the top floor of the annex. On two sides of the room are boards, and into them are affixed all manner of elec-trie apparatus. Those on one side have to do with alarm box circuits, and with apparatus having to do with recording alarms received from the 514 alarm boxes in the city. On the other side the boards are covered with equipment used to test and charge batteries.

In the middle of the room, at one end, is a telephone switchboard of a special type, a manual transmitter, possibly the most important bit of machinery in the room, several desks, a few chairs and a table. In open spaces on the wall hang a few maps of the city of Louisville, one of them studded with markers showing the location of alarm boxes. The room is light, pleasant, spacious, but it has a businesslike atmosphere. The men on duty, two of them at a time, are always on the alert. They have to be.

Their work calls for close attention, accuracy and speed. They are trained men, all of them in the business at least five years. Mr. Dey has studied and worked in this particular line of work thirty-two years. That is probably the reason why he has lived through the vicissitudes of twelve political administrations in the e3 though his office has I Itm? 1 not one to end and the the the this Say is a is the to can though.

Mr. Dey said, operators sometimes used the handle to keep their hands in. The transmitter is an instrument in a glass case. Glass doors, front and back, can be opened. When they are opened the operator is faced by a sort of board, of brass, studded with handles, and with numbers at either side.

The alarm that came in was 321. Starting at the left, he pulls down the first three handles, setting the first at 3, the next at 2, the third at 1. Then, by pressing another handle, the machine is set in motion. First of all. it electrically moves long slips of paper in each fire house, which are punched.

These punches are spaced, three close together, then a space, then two, then a space, then one. This is repeated. Then the transmitter rings gongs in all the houses, sounding 321. The engines which must answer a first alarm from this box are expected to be on their way within thirty seconds from the time when the alarm was received at the "tower," and they usually are. That is what happens when paper, as well as audibly by means of gongs.

The central establishment then was located in the City Hall, under the clock, and the operator on duty wag equipped with a spy glass, with which he picked out the scene of a blaze and the fire box nearest it. This was possible then because the city was not so spread out and there were no high buildings to obstruct the view. The operator often, according to Mr. Dey, spotted a fire before any alarm was turned in. In 1891, -when the present fire headquarters was established, the central station was moved to the west end of the top floor of the building.

In 1904 the system was somewhat modernized ami moved to the east end of present headquarters building. It was in 1912 that the final move was made to the "tower" in the City Hall Annex. The latest electrical devices and appliances were installed and the system made absolute'- up-tj-date, with provision for growth of the city. As a matter of fact, though only oi boxes are now in use, there is room on the present board for 8io, using twenty alarm boxes lo a circuit. There are forty circuits ready for use, twenty-nine of them being in use.

The present system is practically fool-proof, though this is entirely unnecessary. What is more important, each rircuit, each battery and every alarm is duplicated. The circuits are tested every day, and batteries are recharged ami fixed daily; there is a double, system whereby, if one circuit is out of order, another is immediately available for service. The alarm boxes are also tested and as often as possible wjth the staff Mr. Dey has for such things, and every bit of machinery is kept in perfect running order.

The system is modern, reliable, uper-fine, and the only thing the city needs greatly more lire-alarm boxes. Those are, it a necessity, if adequate fire prevention precautions are to be taken. There are, it is said, localities where the nearest alarm box is as much a.s a half mile away, and sometimes the distance is even greater than hat-But, after all, it is the men who handle the system, not the system itself, who deserve the greatest priie. It is up to tnem, and they do it. promptly, efficiently, easily.

It their work that helps protect LVaiville from fires, and to them great credit is due. nace. Often it is found that an overwrought householder, seeing smoke, telephones the "tower," only to find out, when he stops to look, that instead of there being any fire, his only claim to fame is bad furnace handling. If so, no fire apparatus need be sent, and none is sent, unless the householder demands it. On the other hand, if there is the slightest necessity for fire apparatus, it is sent.

But the operator at work tries to find' out as much as he can in the shortest possible time as to the fire, where it is and what is burning. Then he usually telephones the company nearest the burning home or building, and then sends out the alarm in the customary manner, finding out first the alarm box nearest the building and sending its number. Such is -the routine. Who are the operators, and what is their record? There is Philip Stokes, senior operator, with the city twenty-six years. There is L.

B. Pusey, a junior operator, at work since 1902. Then there are others, among them Emil Vollmer, senior operator, in service fourteen years, and J. T. Seivert, a junior operator, in the service seven years.

All of them are experienced, all of them know the work, all of them stay on. hang over from other city administrations. Why? Because they cannot readily be replaced. It is a job which requires a great deal of training. The history of the fire department begins in 1858, when it was first organized as a paid force.

The birth of the fire alarm system came in May, 1865, when the first alarm was turned in from Box 14 at Shelby and Broadway on May 21. The ringing of the alarm from this box was a vastly different thing from what it now. Huge bells in every engine house over the city clanged out the number then. There was no central station, and in many cases faulty counting of the strokes of the bells led to runs made in wrong directions, arguments over where the fire was, and difficulty in locating the blaze. Mr.

Dey, in speaking of the alarm boxes being put in. remarked, "I regret to say that many of the original alarm boxes are still in use. Naturally they are antiquated and, in some difficult to keep in repair." July 9, 1882, the present "joker" system was established. This means the registering of numbers legibly by punches on one sounds a fire alarm from a box. Now, supposing one of the boxes is not located anywhere near the home of the person wishing to sound an alarm, and that is well possible, according to Mr.

Dey, for the city could well use two or three hundred more fire alarm boxes, that person must telephone. So he says, "I want to report a fire," and he is immediately switched to a special wire leading to the "tower." He ought to be, at any rate, for the tower has special wires from all exchanges. The junior operator on duty answers the call, and answers it immediately, for a red signal flashes on his board and all other matters are put aside until tin's call is answered. The alarm sounder is excited and may say "My house is burning down." Thp operator may reply, "Did you see the flames?" And may get this answer, "No, I didn't see any flames, but I saw smoke coming up from the cellar." Then the operator will try to question the person calling, to find out what is the matter, whether there is a fire or just a smoking fur- has een them mobbing? birds of prey and rmvetting round them in repeated arc, having no trouble to keep pace, though they travel many times the distance. The point has been made by Oliver Wendell Holmes In a charming, if rather elaborate, metaphor, in which he compared their excursions ith the thoughts of a nimble-witted listener to low preacher.

He could wander pleasantly in tlds direction and that, yet be sure of keeping the thread of the preacher Journey when he might wish to return. INVADE PINE FORESTS. In the last few years tens of thousands of American trees enough to build thousands of homes have been destroyed through the invasion of the great TaciXic forests by the pine bottle. say Topuiar Science Monthly. In less than one this iiiscct can ruin the highliest pjr.e tret1.

K-. idcr.ee recently submitted to the l.niteu btaies Senate Committee on Public Lands showed that in a single secron of 1.000,000 acres In-Klamath Coiffity. the pests destroyed lumber enough to build not less than 8.000 American residence of an average cost nf acb. often been threatened, he has never been removed. He could easily be replaced.

It is these men in this room, with this equipment, who handle almost every fire alarm, either coming from a box or over the telephone. And from this room can best trace what happens an alarm. From beginning to the space of time is only thirty seconds, but during that time much force, electric and otherwise, is brought into play. An alarm is sounded, for instance, from a box at Hillcrest Frankfort Avenue. When person who sounded the alarm pulled down the handle of box what happened? Inside box a wheel started turning.

This wheel is slotted, or cogged. Circuits are made and broken by wheel and its cogs as it turns. the box at Hillcrest and Frankfort rings G21. The minute that wheel starts turning what happens? The alarm box at Hillcrest and Frankfort is one of several, up to twenty, on one circuit. At that circuit, on one of the boards, a buzzer sounds.

Or, if a switch thrown, a gong rings and the buzzer sounds, too. In addition red light flashes and a piece of paper, moving, is punched, SL'l rung, flashed and punched. There are legible, audible and visual signs that an alarm has been turned in from the box at Hillcrest and Frankfort. The minute the buzzer starts senior operator on duty goes over and listens to the buzzer, watches the light or reads the punches on the paper to get the number of the box. Then he turns and sets about transmitting this the fire-fighting forces.

Ho do this in two ways. He can send it out by hand, pressing the correct number of times a handle much like a telegrapher's instrument, or he can use the manual transmitter, an automatic affair. Usually he uses the transmitter, NATURE ATTEMPTED AN AIRSHIP The sn allows and shifts may be ald to 'lis only email birris tn Hie cull division, and thoy ha gifts very nearly peculiar 10 The- body atvl ft'Keieion have been lightened by an elaborate apparatus of air scle. as if nature were striving to product a craft tban air. a liny airship.

This form rf adaptation, common tn onie degrees to many ha leaihcl its highest development in the shallow and. accompanied by a ins ft iiM'u able length, and a tall that Is both rudder and plane, it gives them an ease and grace quite their own. 1 hey can glide so low as jut to iip their Mug.s in the cyol waur. They in turn with a that hides the sharpness of the angles. Tl.e upper air or loner rur is ail the same to thorn.

They are so cvtihcjous of their niubif tv that, though they arc Leak and bo'iy and ti.ey chas-e and mob any enemy. A scientist has mar.y matched them compel the rclreat oi a ecu by dicing at him so close, as one would swtar, to touch his ears. The cat did not so much as avirpt to strike, and retire ntttrljr owed. Nearly everyone.