A Part of Ranken History
The Autocall Fire Alarm System
The History~
Construction finished on Ranken’s first building in the spring of 1910. This building faced Cook Ave and is now known as the Cook building. Work on construction of the Finney building was approved in 1911 and the Finney building was completed in 1913. Though we are unsure of when Autocall installed the fire alarm system we can guess that it was in the late 1940’s or the mid 1950’s. We can make this guess because the addition to the Cook building was completed in November 1941. This addition was built to train soldiers how to construct and repair war vehicles for World War II. This building is now the Precision Machining Shop and the HVAC Shop. There have been a bell and two alarm boxes found in the Cook addition, thus we know the system was installed after 1941.
Why Autocall?
A bit of history about Autocall and the products they installed. Between 1940 and 1960’s the Autocall Company had a simple fire alarm system called the Autocall Type SA Master Code Fire Alarm System. This was named the Type SA because the SA stood for School Alarm. Autocall also installed several types of a “paging” systems. We know that Ranken had a fire alarm system from Autocall and we have found evidence of an Autocall Paging system. It would make sense to have one company install two systems. It was common among colleges and universities to have the Autocall Type SA system installed due to its simplicity.
How the Type SA Worked~
The Type SA system was comprised of non-coded alarm boxes and bells placed in series. The non-coded boxes and bells were connected to a main panel. This main panel housed the code mechanism, relays, and resistance elements. The code mechanism was only activated when the glass was broken on a alarm box, unless a heat detector was used. No heat detectors have been found at Ranken yet. Once the glass was broke on an alarm box the code mechanism would activate several single strokes on the bells. These strokes would continue for a length of time and then stop. If the alarm bells have stopped and the alarm not reset the panel will sound a smaller “Trouble” bell indicating that the panel needs to be reset. The neat thing about the type SA code mechanism is that it could be connected to the city fire alarm system and call fire when activated or it could be left unconnected and just used as an evacuation system. We are unsure of what happened to Ranken’s main panel or where it was located.
Ranken's Fire Alarms~
Ranken had several type NC alarm boxes installed around the Cook building. The upper left picture is a Type NC alarm box found in the basement of the Cook building. These boxes had a round glass disk in the center and a Normally Closed (NC) switch behind the glass. When the box was closed the glass pushed the switch into the Open position. When the glass was broken the switch Closed and activated the fire alarm. We have only found three Autocall NC alarm boxes. All three where located in the Cook building and none have been found yet in the Finney building. These boxes had a special triangle shaped key, we had no key but found that a 4mm socket would open the box. Ranken has several Autocall bells around the Cook and Finney building. You may see some of these bells still in the halls. These bells were 10Vac and sounded when the alarm went off. They are Type RV8, the V stood for vibrating and the 8 stood for 8inch diameter. These bells make quite a loud sound when on!
The Removal~
The three alarm boxes have been removed for safety reasons. Incase of a fire we would not want someone to think that old alarm box would trigger the actual fire alarms. The alarm bells that where located above the ceiling tiles and in locations that were not seen by the public were removed. One still remains on the first floor hall of the Cook building. Another bell still resides in the bridge that connects the Cook and Finney building. These two bells will most likely be the only things that remain from the old fire alarm system.
The Fire Alarms Locations~
Fire Alarm locations on the ground floors of the Cook and Finney buildings.
Fire Alarm locations on the first floors of the Cook and Finney buildings.
All Pictures Copyrighted 2007 ZCG Utility Scrap.
Written By: Zachary Gillihan, Ranken Technical College, IS Department 2007