More from Steve Redick on the Main Fire Alarm Office history:
Continuing with the Don Neal Photos
These are the keys and sounders for the joker lines. Each represents a circuit containing several firehouses. We could communicate with each grouping individually by a numerical code, NOT Morse code.You can see the listings on the back wall of each circuit and the companies thereon. We had a master key that would transmit to all the joker circuits at once when we sent out the signals indicating groups of companies responding on alarms. When companies arrived in quarters they would send the return signal on the telegraph key on their joker stand and it would sound a click and flash a light on the appropriate sounder circuit. They all had slightly different sounds and you could generally tell the circuit being activated without having to look for the flashing light. We would use the individual circuits to send out water shutdowns and street closures as well as alert a company when their amplifier was unavailable. There were 20 such circuits at main and I don’t recall how many at Englewood but it was a lesser number.
Don Neal photo
Don Neal photo
