CHIEF HALE’S ELECTRIC FIRE ALARM.

CHIEF HALE’S ELECTRIC FIRE ALARM.

Chief Hale, of Kansas City,Mo.,has invented an automatic fire alarm system which combines the advantages of the telephone and the graphohone. His idea, which is the result of six years’ study, is to place thermostats at frequent intervals about the various rooms of a building and connect them by wires to a graphophone which is connected with the business telephone of the house. The wires from all the thermostats on any one floor run to reproducer, which is poised above a wax cylinder, on which record has been made. The thermostats cn the next floor are connected with a reproducer poised over another line—and so on for all the floors of the building. The thermostats are so sensitive that a very little increase in the heat in the room, such as would be made by a fire in any portion of it. breaks the electric circuit. This lets the producer for that particular floor drop upon its proper wax cylinder, aud the graphophone begins repeating its alarm into a telephone transmitter. The breaking of the circuit, also, by an ingenious device contrived by Chief Hale, closes another circuit, which rings the bell, or throws the drop at the central office, and the operator,upon listening hears the clear tones of the graphophone shouting its alarm concerning the fire and its exact location. The central office notifies the fire depart ment, and the firemen get to the conflagration without a person being in its actual vicinity to give the alarm. Chief Hale’s invention has been carefully investigated by experts and has been pronounced “ very good.” The talking apparatus and the connection with the regular telephone do not interfere in the least with the ordinary use of that instrument, while the fact that it can be so attached greatly lessens the cost over what it would be, were it necessary to put in special wires to the fire department headquarters.

Chief Hale, of Kansas City,Mo.,has invented an automatic fire alarm system which combines the advantages of the telephone and the graphohone. His idea, which is the result of six years’ study, is to place thermostats at frequent intervals about the various rooms of a building and connect them by wires to a graphophone which is connected with the business telephone of the house. The wires from all the thermostats on any one floor run to reproducer, which is poised above a wax cylinder, on which record has been made. The thermostats cn the next floor are connected with a reproducer poised over another line—and so on for all the floors of the building. The thermostats are so sensitive that a very little increase in the heat in the room, such as would be made by a fire in any portion of it. breaks the electric circuit. This lets the producer for that particular floor drop upon its proper wax cylinder, aud the graphophone begins repeating its alarm into a telephone transmitter. The breaking of the circuit, also, by an ingenious device contrived by Chief Hale, closes another circuit, which rings the bell, or throws the drop at the central office, and the operator,upon listening hears the clear tones of the graphophone shouting its alarm concerning the fire and its exact location. The central office notifies the fire depart ment, and the firemen get to the conflagration without a person being in its actual vicinity to give the alarm. Chief Hale’s invention has been carefully investigated by experts and has been pronounced “ very good.” The talking apparatus and the connection with the regular telephone do not interfere in the least with the ordinary use of that instrument, while the fact that it can be so attached greatly lessens the cost over what it would be, were it necessary to put in special wires to the fire department headquarters.