1903 VERY RARE Gamewell Cast Iron Latey Mech Antique Auxiliary Fire Alarm Box

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1903 VERY RARE Gamewell Cast Iron Latey Mech Antique Auxiliary Fire Alarm Box:
$599.99

1903 era VERY RARE Cast Iron Rare Antique Gamewell Auxiliary Fire AlarmBox Latey Mechanism

Thistype of box is known as a Gamewell Latey box...typically used inrailroad settings. The masterboxes are named for the designer of themechanism Henry Latey. The mechanism is wound by a crank on thefront of the inner door. A little more than 1/2 turn of the crankwinds and locks the mechanism in the cranked position. The mechanismis tripped electrically by the coils on the left or manually bydepressing the push button (that actually depresses the coilarmature). The coils on the right are non-interfering coils. Oncetripped, the box cannot send a signal again unless wound/reset. Latey boxes did not have keyguards. There are many opinions as towhy and how the hole cut in the box got there. The most prevalentanswer is to allow a non key holder to activate the box. The holegives access to the button to trip the alarm so I have been told,behind the hole are 5 bolts that apparently held a device or a glassplate. The hole is so precisely cut and the bolts so meticulouslyset, that it is hard to imagine this was done outside the factory,but I really don\'t know. Due to the “plug” on the bottom (seephotos) you only need a small piece of wood under the bottom front tohave it sit correctly and securely (I used an address book), and ithad no tipping issues, as the bottom is flat.

Iassume if you are offerding on this you already know about this box. But for clarification, below are some replies I received from someGamewell experts and their impressions and thoughts on the box, mostseem to agree that the hole had glass that fit between the bolts onthe inside of the door, here are there comments:

“Theywere used for subways the button is for fire and the switch shuts thepower off to the 3rd rail.”“Thescrews around it indicate a glass piece to keep the elements, etc,out, but allow a non key holder to activate the box. “

“Lateyboxes were master boxes operated electrically by independent localenergy, energizing the left hand set of coils. The right hand set ofcoils are non-interfering coils. The button in question merelymanually activated the mechanism by depressing the left coilsarmature. This style Latey box was one-shot and then it was woundusing the crank on the inner door about 3/4 turn counter-clockwise.Once tripped the box had to be reset by cranking....no other signalcould otherwise be sent. With power to the 3rd rail cut, I\'m sure thebox would be reset in order to allow power to be reapplied to the 3rdrail.”

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