56 Electric Fire Alarms. 



In Melbourne we are still further behind. That some 

 system or another will some day be adopted here there is 

 very little reason to doubt, and then it will be admitted as a 

 necessary and valuable auxiliary. If it be necessary then, 

 it is so now, and must have been years ago, or as soon as 

 the telegraph lines in our city provided us with a means of 

 doing so. And it certainly does appear curious that perhaps 

 some great calamity will force us to a plan that common 

 sense should have caused us long ago to adopt. 



The number of serious fires in Melbourne average about 

 one hundred per annum. Much valuable property is thus 

 destroyed ; and it is not too much to say that with some 

 efficient system by which an early intimation could be 

 given, the amount of property destroyed would be greatly 

 diminished. 



Most of the bonded and other warehouses are closed at 

 noon on Saturdays, and remain locked up until Monday. 

 In such places an automatic circuit- closer should be fitted 

 in connection with the general system. These circuit-closers 

 consist of an arrangement that closes or breaks the circuit 

 as soon as the temperature of the room in which it is placed 

 reaches a certain limit. They are largely used in America, 

 the insurance offices there reducing the premium to all stores 

 and buildings in which they are used. 



Statistics furnished from New York state, " whilst in 

 1866, 1867, and 1868 the percentages of total destruction 

 of buildings were 7, 6J, and 5, in 1877, 1878, and 1879 

 they were but 3'45, 114, and 1*6 respectively, the re- 

 duction being caused by the improved system of their fire 

 alarms." And a paper recently read at a scientific section at 

 Brussels states that, from statistics collected, with the most 

 perfect system of fire alarms serious fires were reduced to 

 4 per cent.: with telegraph communication from offices alone, 

 but without alarms, 17 per cent.; while without any tele- 

 graph communication they reached 27 per cent. I have in 

 this paper endeavoured, in as brief a manner as possible, to 

 explain the general ideas and advantages of fire alarms, 

 without entering into all the numerous and ingenious 

 devices that have been and are continually introduced for 

 that purpose. 



