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The Fire-Alarm Telegraph: A Box That Sends Its Own Address
Ed

Created by

Ed

27. September 2026FI
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The Fire-Alarm Telegraph: A Box That Sends Its Own Address

In a growing city a fire was reported by someone running to the nearest station house, and the alarm was spread by shouting and church bells. By the time the engines knew where to go, the fire had spread. William F. Channing of Boston and Moses G. Farmer of Salem, Massachusetts, received US 17,355, dated 19 May 1857, for "The American Fire-Alarm Telegraph". Signal boxes are placed within a short distance of every house. Turning a box's crank rotates a wheel whose two groups of teeth break the circuit to the central station in a pattern — the district number, then the box number — which the station reads as dots and dashes; the station then strikes the alarm bells in the towers by telegraph. This rung works out how many boxes such a code can name and why it is sent three times, and builds a signal box with an Arduino.
Intermediate
About 3 hours

Instructions

1

Codes, timing and repetition

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2

The line the alarm runs on

The fire alarm used the electric telegraph's circuit and magnet. The embedded blueprint builds Morse's telegraph.
3

Read US 17,355

"The object of the American fire-alarm telegraph is to give an instantaneous and definite alarm, either general or local, in a city or town, in case of fire." The system has signal-stations, a central station, alarm-stations, a signal-circuit and an alarm-circuit. Signal-stations are to be multiplied "in order to place one within a suitable distance of every house." In a signal-station a small bell h is struck by a hammer on the armature-lever of an electro-magnet, and c c′ is "a break-circuit key", worked by a knob or by a circuit-wheel b turned by a crank a. "On the periphery of the circuit-wheel are two groups of teeth": one of short teeth giving "dots", the other of teeth giving a combination of dots and dashes. "The first of these groups may, by the number of its teeth, represent the number of the fire-district in which the signal-station is located. The second group may ... represent the number of the signal-station itself in that district." The crank is weighted so the wheel rests with the circuit closed. Several signal-circuits may radiate "like the petals of a flower from the central station", and threefold or manifold wires lessen "the probability of interruption from accident or design."
4

The signal-box sketch

Press the button and the box sends its district and station numbers as groups of beeps, three rounds, like one turn of the crank. Compiled and run against a simulator: one press gives exactly 24 pulses (3 + 5, three times).
signal_box.inoarduino
// A fire-alarm signal box, after Channing and Farmer's circuit-wheel (US 17,355, 1857).
// Press the button and the box number goes out as two groups of pulses --
// the district, then the station -- three rounds, as one turn of the crank would send it.
const int BUTTON = 2;      // push button to GND (the crank)
const int BUZZER = 8;      // piezo buzzer (the bell at the central station)
const int LED = 13;        // on-board LED shows each pulse
const int DISTRICT = 3;    // first group of teeth
const int STATION = 5;     // second group of teeth
const unsigned long PULSE_MS = 150, GAP_MS = 250, GROUP_MS = 900, ROUND_MS = 2500;

void pulse() {
  digitalWrite(LED, HIGH);
  tone(BUZZER, 880);
  delay(PULSE_MS);
  noTone(BUZZER);
  digitalWrite(LED, LOW);
  delay(GAP_MS);
}

void group(int n) {
  for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) pulse();
  delay(GROUP_MS);
}

void setup() {
  pinMode(BUTTON, INPUT_PULLUP);
  pinMode(BUZZER, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(LED, OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
  if (digitalRead(BUTTON) == LOW) {
    Serial.print("ALARM box ");
    Serial.print(DISTRICT);
    Serial.print("-");
    Serial.println(STATION);
    for (int r = 0; r < 3; r++) {
      group(DISTRICT);
      group(STATION);
      delay(ROUND_MS);
    }
  }
}

Materials for this step:

Arduino Uno R3Arduino Uno R31 piece
Push ButtonPush Button1 piece
Piezo BuzzerPiezo Buzzer1 piece
Jumper WiresJumper Wires1 piece
BreadboardBreadboard1 piece

Tools needed:

Computer with Arduino IDEComputer with Arduino IDE
5

Crank, send, count

Blockly Workspace

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6

A signal box that is not heard

Signal-box troubleshooting.

Flow

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7

History and honest limits

**William F. Channing** of Boston and **Moses G. Farmer** of Salem, assignors to Channing, received US 17,355, dated 19 May 1857, for the American Fire-Alarm Telegraph. **Honest limits.** The pulse timings and drop rates in the notebook are examples; the sketch is a model of the code, not a certified alarm.

Materials

5
  • Arduino Uno R310% commission
    1 piece
    Magento Legacy Storeships internationally
    fromDKK 179.56
  • Push Button10% commission
    1 piece
    Magento Legacy Storeships internationally
    fromDKK 3.38
  • Placeholder
  • Jumper Wires10% commission
    1 piece
    Magento Legacy Storeships internationally
    fromDKK 10.70
  • Breadboard10% commission
    1 piece
    Magento Legacy Storeships internationally
    fromDKK 63.05

Tools Required

1

CC0 Public Domain

This blueprint is released under CC0. You are free to copy, modify, distribute, and use this work for any purpose, without asking permission.

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