eration of difference of size and police organization, there remains no doubt that the small loss which Boston has sustained by fire during this last year, is mainly due to this valuable invention. According to the last Report of the Fire Department of that city, extending from September 1st, 1853, to September 1st, 1854, the whole amount of losses by fire has been ascertained to have been but $150,772. The losses in our city,* du ring the same period, must be estimated by millions." We copy the following from a circular upon the American Fire Alarm Telegraph, which gives a description of the system ample for comprehension: "Its object is to give an instantaneous, universal, and definite alarm in case of fire. This object, which has been hardly proposed by any other system, is fully accomplished by the Fire Alarm Telegraph. It presents, therefore, a claim to the attention of insurers, of property holders, and of municipal governments throughout the United States. The Fire Alarm Telegraph consists essentially of two parts: First, the Signal apparatus and wires, by which the intelligence of a fire is communicated from any part of a city to the Central Station. Second, the Alarm apparatus and wires, by which the alarm bells in different parts of a city are struck from the Central Station by the touch of a single finger, without the intervention of hands, watchmen, or bell-ringers at the belfries or bell towers. For example: there are in the City of Boston forty-three Signal Stations, or "Signal Boxes," distributed over the city, from any one of which the intelligence of a fire in the neighborhood can be communicated instantly to the Central Station by the simple turning of a crank. The operator at the Central Station-the sole watchman of the system-is then able, by simply depressing a key with his finger, to strike the District number simultaneously on twenty-two church, school-house, and engine bells in every quarter of the city; and not only this, but also to tap back on all the Signal Boxes the number of the Signal Box in the District from which the alarm proceeded. The engines are thus directed not only to the District, but actually to the very box originating the alarm. The time between the first discovery of a fire by the inmates of a dwelling, and its definite announcement from all the steeples and by all the Signal Boxes, is thus, on an average, not more than three minutes in the City of Boston at the present time, and is often within a single minute. New-York City. The best example of a system of District Alarm, in which the bells are rung by hand, is probably that in the City of NewYork. There the eight bell-towers are provided with watchmen, and are connected with telegraph wires, so that when one watchman discovers a fire he can notify it to all the others. There are thus only eight stations in the City of New-York from which an alarm can originate, whereas the Fire Alarm Tele. graph provides forty-three Signal Boxes for the comparatively small territory of Boston, from any one of which the alarm is communicated instantly. The alarm system in New-York also requires eight watchmen constantly on the alert, who must each ring his bell according to the District number. The Fire Alarm Telegraph requires only one watchman at the Centre, who strikes any number of bells by the touch of a single fin ger. Moreover, in New-York, after the alarm is actually given, the engines are only directed to the District, which may be a mile or two square, and in which they may run about for half an hour without finding the fire. The Fire Alarm Telegraph, on the other hand, directs the engines to the District by the bells, and to the Signal Box, in the District from which the alarm came, by tapping its number, from time to time, on all the Signal Boxes in the city. The engines, therefore, may always be headed from the start to within at least two hundred and fifty yards of the fire. It may be added, that the adaptation of the Alarm apparatus to the eight bell-towers in NewYork, and similar large bells in other cities, would furnish a much more simple and beautiful application of the Fire Alarm Telegraph than that in Boston, where twenty-two comparative. ly small bells are struck simultaneously. The reports of the Fire Departments of New-York and Boston illustrate strikingly the practical operation of the two systems. In Boston, during the last year, there were a large number of small fires, many of which would have been destructive, if the first ten minutes had not been saved to the firemen by the Fire Alarm Telegraph. In 1853 there were 168 fires in Boston, with a loss of $268,621; while in New-York there were 335 fires, with a loss of nearly $5,000,000—that is, a nine times greater loss for each fire in New York than in Boston. While the existence of immense warehouses, hotels, &c., in our cities, makes it impossible to guarantee them absolutely from large fires, it is all the more important to provide a system which shall give an immediate and certain alarm, when the only hope in the case of such conflagrations is confessedly in arresting them at the commencement. A more detailed description will now be given of the Ameri can Fire Alarm Telegraph, in its various parts, and of the safeguards by which its permanence, and the regularity and certainty of its operations are insured. The wires connected with the signalizing and alarm apparatus, forming the "Signal Circuits" and "Alarm Circuits," are car. ried over the houses, on the highest and most isolated of which they are supported by insulators held in brackets. The wires themselves are of the best Swedish iron, No. 9, and are to be erected in the most substantial manner. There are always duplicate wires, following different routes, between every two Stations, so that if one is broken from any cause, the second remains good until the first can be repaired. The ground is not used as any part of the circuit, so that the falling of a wire produces no false connection, and double insulation also results. These precautions are found to preserve the circuits practically intact. The wires, properly erected in a city, are very rarely interrupted from any cause; and the probability against the interruption of the two corresponding wires, between neighboring stations, at the same time, amounts almost to an impossibility. But, besides this, the Central Station is furnished with testing apparatus, by which the integrity of each circuit is constantly ascertained. For convenience and security, the Signal Boxes and the Alarm Bells, in any great city, are not strung respectively upon one great Signal Circuit, and one great Alarm Circuit, but the number of circuits of each class is multiplied, all of them radiating from the Central Station, like the petals of a flower. Thus, Signal Circuits may traverse different parts of the city. To work on the bells, turn to one or more finger keys, which communicate back with the Signal Boxes, and tap on these occasionally five times; a little magnet and armature in each Signal Box gives a sharp click for every tap, and the firemen, who run to the nearest box and listen, know that the alarm comes from District three, Station five, and their pocket map tells them exactly where this station is, and the nearest route to it. The machinery in the bell towers consists of a striking machine, carried by the water in the city pipes or by weight, and let off by telegraph at each blow. The blows are of any power required, there being no practical limit in this respect. The advantages of the American Fire Alarm Telegraph may be recapitulated as follows: 1. It furnishes an indefinite number of Signal Stations, scattered broadcast over a city, from which an alarm may be com municated. No time is lost, therefore, between the fire itself and the telegraph. 2. The operator, or the watchman at the Centre, receives the intelligence immediately, and forthwith strikes the District number on one or all the Alarm bells by telegraphic agency. 3. The number of the Station, from which the alarm proceeded, as well as the District, is telegraphed to the Fire Department, so that the engines are headed from the first, to almost the exact locality of the fire. 4. The arrangements of the system protect it from interruption, either by accident or design, and it works with equal certainty and promptitude in sunshine or storm, by day or by night. 5. It prevents almost entirely the occurrence of false alarms, which entail a great expense on a city, on account of the wear and tear of engines.* 6. It provides a system of organization, by which the whole Fire Department of a city is brought into communication with a single Centre, receiving directions from this Centre, either by the bells or Signal Boxes, and communicating back to it by a finger key, which, in addition to the crank, is placed in every Signal Box. 7. Telegraphic conversation may be held between any of the Signal Boxes and the Central Station, which is generally placed at the City Hall, for police purposes. The following facts are from official documents: The false alarms in NewYork, in 1848, were 98; in 1847, 125; in 1849, 162; in 1853, 239. In 1846, '7 and '8, the false alarms were one-fourth of the alarms given, and in 1849, they were more than one-third. In Boston, the average number of false alarms annually, for six years previous to 1850, was 50-about one-seventh the whole number of alarms given. Under the present system, in 1852, the false alarms were only 7, and, in 1853, only 10an average, for those two years, of only one-twentieth of the alarms for fire. Both in New-York and Boston the expense of a false alarm is said to be about $100. The present number of annual false alarms costs the City of Boston $700 or $800, while in New-York the false alarms for 1849 cost the city more than $16,000, and at the same rate for 1850, over $23,000. EPIGRAM.-A Correspondent of the National Intelligencer has furnished to the editor of that print the following translation of an "epigrama," from the Latin, which recently appeared in the Southern Chronicle, viz: On Morse, the Ceraunographer.—Nature Complaining of her Sons' Spoliations. See Franklin force the clouds their bolts to bury; While Morse the lightning makes his Secretary. ART. VI.--MAGNETO-ELECTRIC BATTERY. TELEGRAPH BATTERIES USED IN AMERICA AND EUROPE-SUPERIORITY OF IN AMERICA, nearly all the telegraph lines have been worked, from their commencement, by the Grove galvanic battery. It has proved to be the most successful over all others, and, with the Morse and House systems, it seems likely to be the most favored. Efforts have been made to devise another and a better battery-one that will not be so expensive, and that will require less labor in keeping it in order. Many improvements have been made in its construction and application. For the present, we will only mention one of the most important, which was devised by Mr. Anson Stager, while Manager of the Morse lines at Cincinnati, Ohio. He applied a battery commonly used for one line, to four others, and, in this manner, successfully worked five lines, each running in independent directions, and of unequal lengths. The battery had one ground or earth-wire. This was a great achievement, and one that will prove of material importance, if properly considered. A modification of the Smee battery has been arranged by Mr. Charles T. Chester, and it claims particular attention on account of its cheapness and economy of labor in taking care of it. The Daniel battery has also been, to a limited extent, used by some lines. A few lines have worked the copper and blue vitriol battery on the local circuits. A few years ago, the sand battery was used on the Bain line, but was not wholly successful. The Magneto-electricity has never been satisfactorily produced in America to work a telegraphic line practically. Mr. Calvin Carpenter, of Providence, Rhode Island, has claimed to have invented a new and novel machine which can effect the desired end. To what extent, however, Mr. Carpenter has succeeded, we are not informed. In England, the sand battery is in general use. The Gutta Percha Works of Mr. Statham has produced gutta percha cella, which renders the sand battery the most popular and serviceable. The telegraphs of England are mostly the needle system, and the quantity required is very moderate. On the Hamburg and Copenhagen line the sand battery has been used very satisfactorily. This line works the Morse system. We saw the sand |