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kropas Store
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Antique Very Small Gamewell Arch-Top Fire Alarm Box Cast Iron Original Red Paint. It is marked Pat. 824,411. I was told this was made to hold the key for the larger alarm box. It measures 4 1/2\" high, 2 7/8\" wide and 2 1/16\" deep. It is just the cast iron frame, no contents or key and no glass if it had any. The frame is fine with strong hinges and great old red paint.
Marked “PAT. 824,411” on front. On June 26, 1906, Frederick W. Cole, assignor to the Gamewell Fire-Alarm Telegraph Company, was issued Patent Number 824,411 for Guard for Door Keys of Fire Alarm Boxes.
A fire alarm box, fire alarm call box or fire alarm pull box is an outdoor device used for notifying a fire department of a fire. Early boxes used the telegraph system and were the main method of calling the fire department to a neighborhood in the days before people had telephones. When the box is triggered, a spring-loaded wheel spins and taps out a signal onto the fire alarm telegraph wire, indicating the box number. The receiver at a fire station then can match the number to the neighborhood. Unmanned or volunteer departments would instead have a Diaphone horn that sounded the box number. The boxes are a form of street furniture still in service in many places, such as Boston and its suburbs, though many towns and cities have removed them due to cost of maintaining the obsolete system. This action has been blocked by courts in New Jersey.
The first practical fire alarm system utilizing the telegraph system was developed by Dr. William Channing and Moses G. Farmer in Boston, Massachusetts in 1852. Two years later, they applied for a patent for their \"Electromagnetic Fire Alarm Telegraph for Cities\". In 1855, John Gamewell of South Carolina purchased regional rights to market the fire alarm telegraph, later obtaining the patents and full rights to the system in 1859. John F. Kennard bought the patents from the government after they were seized after the Civil War, returned them to Gamewell, and formed a partnership, Kennard and Co., in 1867 to manufacture the alarm systems. The Gamewell Fire Alarm Telegraph Co. was later formed in 1879. Gamewell systems were installed in 250 cities by 1886 and 500 cities in 1890. By 1910, Gamewell had gained a 95% market share.
