If you’re a fan of old technology, you’ll enjoy this story in the Union-Leader about Manchester ending its fire alarm telegraph system, using the boxes on street corners.
The network used a hard-wired telegraph system to transmit numerical codes to the dispatch center after the handle of a street box was pulled. Inside each box is a mechanism reminiscent of the inner workings of a clock, with spinning and interlocking gears. Signals were sent to fire stations. The signals were recorded by punching holes in “tape” and alarms would sound in the fire stations.
By coincidence, I assume, Boston.com recently ran a story about that city’s fire alarm system, which is still in use: “When Boston turned on its fire alarm telegraph system on April 28, 1852, it was the first of its kind in the world, making its debut more than 20 years before Alexander Graham Bell was granted his patent for the telephone.”
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