The Gamewell Fire Alarm System.
KNOWLEDGE that most fires if discovered before they had made much headway could be subdued if some means were adopted to notify the firemen, led to the introduction of an electric system of fire alarms in the year 1852. The enterprise was first tried in Boston. To Moses G. Farmer and William F. Channing belongs the credit of the invention of the sjstem, and it was immediately and generally recognized as an invention of inestimable value. From the very start it was a success. For three years the apparatus was practically on trial in Boston, for it became necessary to demonstrate not only that the apparatus would give the proper signals, but that it could be relied upon to be in working order all the time. A single failure during these early years of its career would have been attended with such disaster as to cause a complete rejection of the telegraph for fire alarm purposes, and it might have been many years before it would have again been attempted.
In 1855 Channing sMd to John N. Gamewell & Co. the right to use all the patents in certain Southern States. Four years later Gamewell & Co. purchased the entire right and title to the electro-magnetic fire alarm telegraph for cities, and up to 1871 some forty places had adopted the apparatus that summoned the fire department by use of electricity. Just what this system consisted of is best told in the language of Dr. William F. Channing, in a petition to the Board oFAldermen on March 24, 1851 :
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