WEBVTT - Fire in Bean Town 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.200 Get in touch with technology with text Stuff from how 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:14.520 stuff Works dot com. Either everyone, and welcome to text Stuff. 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.320 I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren Volcon, and today we're 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:20.960 going to talk about a cool piece of historic technology 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:24.239 that to this very day, at least as of the 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:27.560 recording of this podcast, is still working in a certain 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:31.440 form in some places. In some places, yeah, we're talking 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:34.160 about that. This was actually Lauren's suggestion. We were looking 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:38.160 at different fire prevention type technologies. Well, we had gotten 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:42.000 a reader request, a listener request, because this is an 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:44.239 audio podcast and I and I do not have the 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:46.440 request open in front of me, so I apologize to 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:49.080 the nice human person who sent this in. UM, someone 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:52.720 requested that we do uh episode about fire alarms, And 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:56.200 in initial research, I there's so much that that is 0:00:56.280 --> 0:00:59.800 commercial out there that's immediately available and uh, and we 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:01.920 were kind of running up to a deadline. But I 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:07.040 realized that, um, that the original fire alarm system a 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:13.440 telegraph system in Boston in the eighteen hundreds, eighteen fifty. Fascinating. Yeah, 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:16.920 this this turned out to be an amazing topic. So 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:20.720 we decided to tackle this system that was installed in 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:23.360 eighteen fifty two. We're not there yet, by the way, 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:25.119 not at all. We're gonna we're gonna work our way 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:27.240 up to eighteen fifty two. But it was installed in 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:32.000 eighteen fifty two and it's still working today. Now. We'll 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.280 address that in greater detail as the episode goes on. So, 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.200 but it's still really kind of remarkable to think of this, 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:43.760 this system that's over a hundred fifty years old still running. 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:48.120 So let's talk about what necessitated it now. Really to 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:51.960 think about it is to talk about the rise of 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:55.640 the construction of cities, which often ended up being rapid 0:01:55.720 --> 0:02:00.520 and unplanned and made a material that we will generously 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:06.200 called flammable. Right there, there wasn't so many steel beams 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:11.519 and concrete being used, and even say even even brick 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:16.320 houses would have wooden window frames or door frames or 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:19.200 flooring or whatever, and if a fire got hot enough, 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:23.160 it could actually cause those materials to burst into flame, 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:26.760 even if they didn't have direct contact with the flames themselves. 0:02:27.080 --> 0:02:31.160 It would create what is really called a firestorm, where 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:34.040 the fire gets so hot it starts to be able 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:37.920 to it just sort of balloons out of control. And uh, 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:42.000 an early example of this one that was absolutely devastating. 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:45.000 We have to look back all the way to sixteen 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:49.639 sixty six the Great Fire of London. Now, this affected 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:52.640 the city of London, which is a square mile. That's 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:58.440 tiny compared to metropolitan London, right, but this fire devastated 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:00.840 that part of London and stretched a little bit beyond 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:03.840 those borders, depending upon you know which side you're talking about, 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:08.200 destroying more than ten thousand houses in the process. And 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:14.480 it's it was an enormously devastating fire. And so that 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:17.320 was an example of something that really showed that there 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:19.320 was a need now that we had these cities that 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:22.359 were really densely populated with lots and lots of houses 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:26.440 that are built incredibly close together, some of them so 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:29.919 close that even in an alleyway, the the upper stories 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:32.520 would be in contact with each other. So you might 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:34.920 have enough room at the at the ground level to 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:36.320 walk through, but if you were to look up, you 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.520 wouldn't see sky. Wow, that's kind of terrifying. Yeah, it 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:42.120 is a little creepy, you know. It's almost like every 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:44.760 alleyway is really just becomes a tunnel because these these 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:51.680 upper stories of these buildings are Yeah, so before in Boston, 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:56.440 here's how a typical fire would be reported. Uh so, 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:59.000 so someone would be assigned the task in in a 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:02.200 particular neighbor hood or area of town that if if 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:05.560 fire broke out, they would um go run to the 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:09.480 nearest church and and ring the church bells. And you 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:13.320 had people also who would carry wooden rattles and rattle 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:18.360 them or just holler. Yeah, so Boston ended up having 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:22.000 this this real problem. I mean they called it hallooing 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:25.120 a fire because really you're just kind of hooting and 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:29.280 hollering trying to get people's attention. But that's not terribly precise. 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:32.719 In fact, it could be very confusing. If anyone has 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:35.560 ever been in a large city and heard a noise, 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:38.240 it could be really hard to detect where that noise 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:41.800 is coming from, let alone a precise location. It's hard 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:44.680 just to even figure out the general direction sometimes just 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:47.359 the way sound travels and bounces around. Sure, and the 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:49.840 speed of response is so important in these kind of things, 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:53.240 especially back in in those days, when containing a fire 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:56.640 would absolutely I mean not that that's not true these days, 0:04:56.680 --> 0:04:59.880 but yeah, it could spread so quickly. I mean they 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:03.520 you know, every the basic building materials that were a 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:05.720 lot of these buildings were made of were very flammable. 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:08.960 There wasn't a lot of flame retardant type material being 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:13.520 mixed in at that time, so you had a serious 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:16.120 need to have a quick response. And unfortunately what was 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:18.680 happening was that fire engines would leave the fire station 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:22.120 with no way of knowing where the actual fire was, 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:24.920 and so they essentially go off in all different directions 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:26.800 trying to find the fire. It was really only if 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:29.800 a fire had gotten so huge as you could see it, yeah, 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:33.040 and by then getting it under control is even more difficult. 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:36.560 So at the time you would have a fire foreman 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:40.039 who would actually shout directions through a trumpet, like a 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:46.599 speaking trumpet, all right, like a cheerleaders, Yeah, megaphone, any 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:50.919 other than cheerleaders, that's right. Uh. And so one of 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.599 the awards that would be given away to firefighters for 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.640 distinguished service was a silver trumpet that was kind of saying, 0:05:56.760 --> 0:06:01.000 in the execution of your duty, you have done amazing service. 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:03.880 And keep in mind that a lot of these firefighters 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:08.760 were volunteer firefighters. This was not the necessarily, not in 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:13.560 Boston anyway. It's not necessarily the era of private firefighting companies, 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:17.480 which were also a thing. To the point where there 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:21.320 were companies that would compete with one another or turn 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:24.160 away service based on Yeah, they'd show up and to 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:26.359 be like, we'll put out that fire, but first you 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:30.400 gotta pay us. Not the most altruistic of firefighting efforts. 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:33.320 But in this case we're talking about citizens of volunteers. Really, 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:38.159 but that was before eighty five. Now, in eighteen forty four, 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:44.000 a certain inventor created something that would change the world. Actually, 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:47.320 let me take this back just a tiny bit, because 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:49.760 you were you were about to talk about Samuel Morris. 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:54.640 I am, but you you you have something to to interject. 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:57.400 I do have something to interject. The thing is that 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:01.880 that Samuel Morris was not the inventor of the telegraph. 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:05.760 He wasn't even the sole inventor of Morse code. UM. 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:10.640 The first known telegraph line was erected in eighteen thirty 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:14.360 seven by Charles Whitstone and William Cook in the UK. 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:17.960 UM this was a line between Euston and Camden Town 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:22.400 on the London and Burningham Railway. And uh it was 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:26.600 this complex five line, five needles system that would point 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:29.400 to different letters on a grid by reversing the direction 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:32.600 of the current flowing through these five wires and um 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:36.040 it was it was pretty unwieldy, those those you know, 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:40.880 having five wires per terminal was really expensive and really complex, 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:45.000 especially for eighteen thirty seven. But these those two gentlemen 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:49.720 had been kind of independently working through the concepts that 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:52.800 Michael Fairday were talking was talking about and in creating 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:56.920 this telegraph technology. Samuel Morse was the first one to 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:00.200 complete a line here in the States. That line opened 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:03.840 up between d C and Baltimore in um. The first 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:08.320 message he sent in his early version of Morse code 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:13.200 was what hath god wrocked? Yeah? And um, yeah, that 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:18.240 that's a famous message. That boy little apocalyptic there in 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:20.960 a way. But yeah, so you might be wondering, how 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.240 do does this system actually work? And it's it's pretty cool. 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:27.440 So uh so we you know what we've talked about 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:30.240 circuits quite a bit on this podcast. But a circuit, 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:33.920 you know, that's essentially a pathway that electricity can take. Now, 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:36.480 if you have what is called an open circuit, that 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:39.240 means that electricity can't pass all the way through the circuit, 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:41.640 there's something there's a gap there, so it can no 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:45.880 longer travel and continue its path. A closed circuit means 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:49.000 that it's completely closed and yeah, and an electricity can 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:51.960 go all the way through the pathway. So if you 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:54.839 were to have an open circuit, a telegraph line that's 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:57.120 an open circuit, and you had a switch, in this 0:08:57.160 --> 0:08:59.880 case a telegraph key that when you press the SWI 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:03.800 which it closes the circuit so that electricity can flow through. 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:06.880 On the other end of that circuit is a receiving 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:11.560 station that when it receives this an electro magnet activates 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:13.560 because we know, you know, when you have electricity going 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:16.840 through an electromagnet, it creates a magnetic force. The magnetic 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.000 force pulls on one end of a lever. The other 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:22.120 end of the lever is attached to a pen that 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:26.200 comes into contact with a rolling piece of paper, and 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.200 so as you hold down the key, the pen stays 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:31.600 in contact with the paper because electricity is flowing through 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:35.120 and it's activated that electro magnetic coil. When you let 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:38.559 go of the key, electricity stops flowing the magnetic coil 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:41.760 let's go, and the pen the lever drops, lifting the 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:44.560 pen off the paper or removing the paper from the pen. 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:47.640 It all depends on the actual implementation of this technology 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:51.560 because there were different models of telegraph machines. So by 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:55.160 doing a series of taps, you can create dots and 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:57.880 dashes on the paper as the pen moves on and 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:01.400 off of it. That and earn would be interpreted as 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:03.680 Morse code, So you would have a certain series of 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:07.160 dots and dashes representing each letter of the alphabet. Also numbers, 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:09.640 that kind of thing. Uh. So that was your your 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:12.960 basic telegraph station. You had the sending and the receiving 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.640 and then you might have another circuit that is on 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:18.520 the receiving end where they can send messages back right, 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:24.320 and and that specific battery switch electromagnet rig was Morse's invention. 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:27.040 There we go, and that would become really important in 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:30.959 what we're about to discuss the idea of using this 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:34.280 in a way beyond sending a message and making it 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:39.559 an actual alert system. So that comes up to eighteen 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.920 forty four. Morse has has completed this and demonstrated it 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:46.120 and it's shown to be an effective means of communication. 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:48.560 That was, yeah, it was. It was really popular in 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:50.320 in the news and you know, ever, it was what 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.960 everyone was talking about in scientific circles because finally you 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:57.960 could get news from from one city to another city 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:02.400 in right faster than any other means of transportation at 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:05.720 that time. So eighteen forty five, a year after Morse 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:08.320 has really has really broken this open in the US, 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:13.120 a mandate. Dr William F. Channing, a native of Boston 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:15.360 and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and of 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:18.720 Harvard with a medical degree, published an article in the 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:22.200 Boston Daily Advertiser, and it was all about creating a 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:26.680 telegraph based fire alarm system for Boston. It was it 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:30.440 was an article that was saying, hey, this dude, Morse 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:33.640 has this pretty cool thing. We can use that thing. Yeah, 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:36.679 And and the problems that we have right now in 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:41.240 Boston mainly that by the time an alarm gets to 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:45.000 a fire station, it's almost too late, and the fire 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:47.960 station doesn't even really know where the fire is. This 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:51.319 solves both of those problems because the communication is immediate, 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:54.280 and because of the way we can design this, it 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:58.240 can be precise so that every single alarm station that 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:00.920 we erect that's part of the system will have its 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.720 own unique identifier, so that way we know where the 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:07.320 fire is, not just that it's happened, but where it is. 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:10.920 And that way we have much faster response time. Yeah. 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:14.199 So he he was recommending not only the the application 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.680 of this technology, but an organization system built around it. Yeah. 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:21.520 He had an entire infrastructure that he proposed, and this 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:24.560 is what eventually gets put in place in Boston more 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:27.199 or less. I mean, it's almost exactly what he had proposed, 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:29.560 although it did have to go through some refining and 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:32.560 tweaking because this was a brand new system. No one 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:35.960 had tried it before. And of course, as anyone who 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:39.200 has worked with any type of technology knows, bugs will 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:41.600 pop up. As you know, you'll you'll think, oh, well, 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:46.920 based upon electronic principles, that should work perfectly, perfectly, and 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:50.280 I'm gonna figure this. Oh, this switch was turned in 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:53.840 open form, it should be closed. But so so he 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:58.400 joined up with an electrical engineer, Um, Moses chief Farmer. Yeah, yeah, 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:01.400 Moses chief Farmer. Interesting guy. He had worked in a 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:03.920 civil engineers office for a while. He was also a 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:07.440 school principal for a while. Uh, and he had an 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:10.559 affinity for machines. In fact, the first machine he had 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:12.400 built that I could find anyway. He may have worked 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:15.280 on other ones before this, but he created a machine 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:19.199 that could print paper window shades. Uh. And then he 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:22.800 when Morse really got the telegraph going, he became interested 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:26.160 in telegraph machines, began to work on them, and eventually 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:28.800 was put in charge of the telegraph line between Boston 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:32.480 and Newberryport, Massachusetts in eighteen forty eight, and actually got 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:34.600 to the point where he had sort of a managerial position. 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:37.320 He would help open new telegraph offices in the area 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:39.839 and make sure that the connections were there and every 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:43.120 thing along those lines. He and Dr Channing kind of 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:45.920 put their heads together and came up with this this 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:51.480 UH proposal. And now in eighteen forty eight, Farmer actually 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:54.960 invented an electric striking apparatus for the fire Alarm service 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:58.800 because part of this overall infrastructure they were talking about 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:03.080 was not just something that would notify the fire stations 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:06.000 that there was a fire, but also have an alarm 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:09.120 system to alert the citizens that a fire was in 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:12.440 the area. Yeah. Yeah, something that would simultaneously alert UM 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:15.160 all the other like like you know, from a grand 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:18.679 central station, it would alert all of the stations along 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:21.600 with the citizenship, right exactly. So this way, if you've 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:24.880 ever lived in a place that has UH an orchestrated 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:28.280 alarm system, something like in here in Atlanta, we talked 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:31.000 about tornado alarms that if you hear the tornado sirens 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:34.440 go off, you know there's a tornado in the area. Uh. 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:37.160 The this is sort of a similar thing. The bells 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:41.320 would ring uh to alert citizens. And ideally, in the 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:45.720 actual proposal, they had talked about connecting all the church 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:48.160 bells in Boston to this system, so that they would 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:52.760 all ring simultaneously and simultaneously in a pattern that would 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:55.840 identify the location of the fire. So, in other words, 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:58.960 once you knew what the different patterns were, you would 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:01.040 know where the fire was no matter where you were 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:02.880 in the city of Boston, by the sound of the 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:06.320 bells ringing. As it turns out, getting all the bells 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:09.520 in the city to ring simultaneously is somewhat of a 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:14.200 non trivial problem. That's complex, yeah, trying to get I mean, 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:17.920 you're talking about physical circuits here. These are physical wires, 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:21.040 like over over the air wires. I mean, these are 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:24.280 wires that are above ground, uh, you know, held up 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:28.520 on rooftops of houses, supported by glass insulators. You know. 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:31.400 They and in fact, there's actually some discrepancy about whether 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:34.880 or not the original wires were all yeah, yeah, I 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:39.400 mean because at the time the the insulation um insulation 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:44.040 technology was was glass tar pitch. Yeah, there are no 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:46.680 plastics there were there were no plastics. UM. They started 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:49.800 getting into UM two ceramics and stuff like that a 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:52.320 little bit later, but that wouldn't be for another couple 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:54.680 of decades, I don't think now. And Channing's writing he 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:57.720 refers to it as being insulated, and then other writings 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:00.680 referred to them being not insulated. So here's the thing, 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:06.080 because we're talking about historical documents and historical uh events, 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:09.880 and this is a time where this is before the 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:13.640 digital age. Clearly we're talking to eighteen fifties. The records 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:18.320 are UH sparse, and not all of them are not 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:21.600 all of them agree with one another. We we we 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:26.080 depend on correspondence and patents and stuff like that, Saper articles. 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:28.320 I have a whole new respect for Holly and Tracy 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:32.960 over at us plug. We need to we need to 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:35.240 have a little bell sound every time we plug one 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:39.400 of our our sister podcasts UM. But they do amazing work. 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:41.400 And yeah, when this really opens up your eyes to 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:45.200 how complex it becomes. So we've got Farmer and we've 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:48.360 got Channing working on this proposed system, and it wasn't 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:52.760 until eighteen fifty one that they actually presented their proposal 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:57.480 to the city, the Boston City government, and they argued 0:16:57.520 --> 0:16:59.720 that this would be a way that would save a 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:02.840 lot some money in the long run, because fires were 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:05.880 still in a big issue, big fear they happened. I mean, 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:09.159 it was a scary thing that could completely devastate an 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:12.359 entire city, or at least districts of a city. There 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:15.199 are multiple districts within the city of Boston, um, and 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:18.840 actually their proposal incorporated that so that each district had 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:22.280 its own set of boxes. And in fact, as we'll 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:25.920 talk about the way that boxes were encoded, it would 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:29.080 tell the operator first which district was being affected, and 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:31.639 then tell the operator which box was the one that 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:36.439 had been activated. So they send this proposal to the 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:41.040 Boston City Government in eighteen fifty one, and the government 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:45.400 approves it and work begins on the system on September seven, 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:51.240 eight fifty one. Originally, depending upon whom you ask, because 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:55.320 there are discrepancies, Uh, this system had three box circuits, 0:17:55.440 --> 0:18:01.639 three bell circuits, forty alarm boxes some into Yeah, it 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:04.480 all depends. Like there's one source that was very definitively 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:07.320 saying no, there were forty one boxes, and another one 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:10.280 that says no, there were thirty nine. I'm going with 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:18.600 forty forty ish boxes uh sixteen to nineteen alarm bills. 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:22.280 And the one central office, yes, one central office which 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:26.119 was this was the office through which all communication would pass. 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:30.400 So the idea being that when someone would would activate 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:33.080 one of these alarm boxes, the message would come to 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:36.600 this central office that the operator the central office could 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:41.800 then pass communication to the nearest fire stations. Originally it 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:44.040 was not recorded on paper, um, the way that we 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:46.159 were talking about earlier. Originally there it was just manned 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:49.040 twenty four hours a day. Right. Channing had said that 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:52.960 a paper recording would be valuable because, for one thing, 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:56.200 it would help keep track of all the different times 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:59.480 that the alarm was signaled, because even in the early days, 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:04.200 there was worry that prankish people something would be missed, 0:19:04.280 --> 0:19:07.399 or that you know, um, eventually there would be finger 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:11.080 pointing that would happen due to some terrible something or another, 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:14.520 or someone just ends up having a hankering for triggering 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:18.080 alarms when there are no fires at all. It was 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:20.160 an idea of this way we keep a record of it. 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:22.800 It becomes more of an official thing it uh, you know, 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:26.160 that'll cut down on misuse of the system. Was really 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:29.120 that was the main focus, but also just to keep 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:31.960 an eye on different parts of the city, saying, well, 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:34.439 this one part of the city gets uh, there are 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:38.160 more alarmed trip there than anywhere else. That would bring 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:42.280 were and Boston would have the first the first paper 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:45.880 recorder system for one of these telegraph fire alarms. But 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:48.159 but that was a few years. Yeah, but that was 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:49.960 that was what Channing had hoped to do at the 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:52.440 very beginning, but it would be a few years before 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:56.320 that happens. So what happens is that the the operator 0:19:56.359 --> 0:19:58.399 sees it, they send out the alert to the to 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:02.040 the uh the respective fire stations, there might be more 0:20:02.040 --> 0:20:05.879 than one, to say this alarm box was triggered, you 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:09.240 need to go there, and then the firefighters would there. 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:12.240 There's be someone at the fire fire station who would 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:16.160 be manning the receiving station to get that message, who 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:20.040 would then pull the bell to to alert the firefighters. 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:22.720 Let's go and give them the message of this is 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:24.560 where you need to go. This is the alarm box 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:27.760 that was triggered. Go to that location and and fight 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:31.800 the fire. So, uh, it was an ingenious system. He 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:35.800 had proposed that the power would come from two sources 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:39.639 outside the facility, so that if one source failed, the 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:42.560 other one would continue. And later they were able to 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:47.320 have a gasoline power generator as well, so that way, 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:50.480 even if the entire city lost power, the system would 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:54.320 still remain viable. So telephone lines go down, electric power 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:57.880 lines go down. This system, yeah, so it's still working. 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:00.159 That was and you know, it's one of the the 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:02.320 things that really said apart from a lot of other 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:06.399 systems that people were proposing at the time. So there 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:10.320 were about forty miles of wire in this original system. Actually, 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:13.080 depending upon the source, it gets up to about forty 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:15.600 eight miles. It was technically twenty four miles. But they 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:19.359 made redundant circuits. So that was another really brilliant thing 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:22.680 about the system. Exactly. Yeah, the redundancy is so important 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:24.560 because you're talking about fire. I mean, this is a 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:29.520 dangerous and destructive force and above ground cables, yeah, exactly. 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:33.280 And Boston has been known from time to time to 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:38.480 have snow and ice storms very occasionally, so it gets 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:43.680 wicked cold in Boston and so sometimes these these lines 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:46.439 can break and so by creating redundancy, it made the 0:21:46.600 --> 0:21:50.320 made the system more robust. Uh. So there are two 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:53.359 sets of these lines forty miles or so forty eight 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:57.280 miles of wire, and the actual call boxes or alarm 0:21:57.359 --> 0:22:00.760 boxes were locked. They had a lock on them. They 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:05.080 were painted black at first. Right until about the eighteen seventies, 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:08.920 only trusted people in the area were given keys and um, 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:10.960 and there were instructions on the little key pop. I've 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:16.920 seen a couple of museum museum pieces and uh. When 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:19.080 eventually the system got too big to handle and they 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:22.240 realized they were doing everyone a disservice by keeping these 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:24.920 locked and making someone who wanted to report a fire 0:22:25.000 --> 0:22:27.440 go find one of these people who held a key. Right. 0:22:27.600 --> 0:22:30.879 Like you know, say someone is on vacation out of town. 0:22:30.920 --> 0:22:33.919 That makes it a little more difficult. Well, when they 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:37.160 get back, we can tell them that their house burned down. Um. Yeah, 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:39.359 so this it was locked away. But if you were 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:44.080 to unlock the system, open up the door. Uh, inside 0:22:44.240 --> 0:22:48.520 wasn't interesting pairing. There was a hand crank and there 0:22:48.760 --> 0:22:52.400 was a telegraph key. Now, the hand crank was what 0:22:52.600 --> 0:22:55.960 the the person was expected to use. The person, the 0:22:56.200 --> 0:22:58.360 person who had been entrusted with the key, and by 0:22:58.359 --> 0:23:02.120 turning the crank it would be the same effect as 0:23:02.160 --> 0:23:05.320 if you were sending a telegraph from a sending station 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:09.199 to a receiving station. The crank would turn a wheel, 0:23:09.280 --> 0:23:12.040 and the wheel would have on it essentially contacts. It 0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:16.480 would it would push a little spring powered UH circuit 0:23:16.800 --> 0:23:22.679