FDNY 1920's Dispatch and Response Video

rdm258

rdm258

Joined
Feb 28, 2007
Messages
1,250
Pretty amazing for the time period, I think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQLlJVagmOs
 
B

Bxboro

Joined
Jun 2, 2009
Messages
106
GREAT !!! Nice to see the job captured for all to see. I can't wait to show the younger guys in my house that some things don't change......nice work!! Any idea which companies other than E-31 were in this?
 
M

manhattan

Joined
Dec 7, 2007
Messages
1,557
Fantastic!  One question that I have: toward the beginning there's footage of an apparatus responding using its bell and a siren; I'd guess that that audio was added to the tape.  Does anyone know when sirens were first introduced in FDNY?
 
N

nfd2004

Joined
Jun 22, 2007
Messages
5,586
Yes, it sure is a Great Video. Thanks RDM.
          It was also good to see our old friend "johnd248" pumping "Steamer 248" in his younger days.
 
F

FDNY150

Joined
Aug 9, 2008
Messages
1,177
Sounded like Box 2418 or 2419. Funny enough, when I came on the job, something similar to those circuit readouts was still in the Brooklyn CO, if it wasn't the original equipment. There are a heck of a lot more than 56 circuits in Brooklyn now. Over 100 ERS, and a few mechanical circuits still left.
 
D

dcampagna

Guest
Thanks for posting that footage -- I've seen stills from that clip but not the actual film. I'm always struck by how much mechanical switching equipment (and hand-patching) was a part of the old systems and how durable it was.

About 10 years ago I visited the decommissioned Titan II missile base in Sahuarita, Arizona. I was amazed that even in 1982 (when it was shut down) the launch coordinates for the ICBM were still hand-loaded on reels of paper punch-tape! "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," I guess.
 
F

fire1buff

Guest
I am sure that when I compiled this video from Stillmans Fire Collections archives I made mistakes in the time frame it was supposed to represent.  One place was at 2.22 in which I show a truck company responding and it looks a little too modern for the early 1920's.  About the siren used on FDNY fire engines - I have a picture taken in 1922 of one of my city's fire engines with a siren, so I am sure that the FDNY had them before that. It was a lot of work putting together this video, but from the response received so far, it was well worth the effort.
 
rdm258

rdm258

Joined
Feb 28, 2007
Messages
1,250
Thank you very much for the making of that video, was good work. Im was just scanning youtube and found it the other night an dposted it, I am glad I did.
 
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