ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Photos for General Discussion FA pics from Sparkyinak

Guys, here are a few pics submitted by Jerry.
While I can post the pics, I'll leave it to Jerry to fill us in on what we are looking at.

Here we go:












The floor is yours, Jerry, thanks for the pics.

Looks like an 'old' FA, heat detector, 120 volt, fixed rate of rise. I like the pull station right next to the FA panel, great for testing.

OK, Jerry....what's the story?

Hi all, sorry for the delay in response. Been buried.

This is a non functioning fire alarm system still in one of the building I help take care of that was built in 1910. The system inspection tag,(old shoe tag) was last marked to be done in 1957. I agree that the golden globe is i do believe is a heat detector

Thats in great shape. era may be correct.
I would think based on the transformer that it is a 12 volt system,the heat detector may be a 'new' replacement.Based on the 'UL'-'FM' labels'.

My first guess would be 'Gamewell' as the mfg.

I started out my career working on FA/BA systems just like that. They also use to have little wheels inside of the "Flow" alarm. The wheel would turn and send a signal to the central station. By the number of clicks you received, you would know which building had the fire. A Flow alarm, is a box mounted to the fire riser pipe. It was mounted just above the check valve. You drilled a hole in the 8"-10" black fire pipe. Curled up a plastic flap ( that looked like a beaver tail) stick the flap inside the pipe to allow it to open up. Then when someone or sprinkler head opened up, the water would flow, push the beaver tail up and activate the alarm. What is even older, (and I wish I can get a picture of it)is the pneumatic fire alarm systems. They used to use 1/4" (or 1/8") copper pipe full of air. When there was a fire, the pressure inside the pipe would heat up and press on a fire alarm button in the main panel.

Here is a quick link that I found about Pneumatic fire alarms.

http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/PDF/Proceedings/Fire_Alarm_System_Research_-_W.Moore_keynote.pdf