Fire Alarm and Police Telegraphs.

The bulletin issued recently by the United States Bureau of the Census, giving the statistics of the third census of the telegraph taken in 1907, gives some interesting details covering the fire alarm and police telegraph systems of the country at the end of that year. There were at that time 1,157 systems in operation, using 70,812 miles of single wire, with 62,504 signaling stations, or boxes, giving 120,719 fire alarms. Of these 1,157 systems, 18 were used interchangeably for fire alarms and police patrol purposes, 931 for fire alarms solely, and 178 for police signaling only. I lie 979 systems used for fire alarm signaling comprised 57,234 miles of wire of which 22.657 miles were underground. Electric tire alarm systems werein use in over ninety per cent, of the cilies in finUnited States having a population of over 10,000. The systems devoted entirely to electric fire alarm -ignaling had 35,337 miles of single wire, 40,897 boxes or signaling stations, and 2.143 special telephones. During 1907 such systems reported 96,516 fire alarms. The lines used interchangeably for the two purposes had 21,897 miles of single wire and received 24,203 fire alarms. The mileage reported for police patrol signaling systems alone was 13,578. and the number of signaling stations was 8.694 The reports for 1907 show 41.961,650 police calls, of which 29,946,757 were telephone calls. Of the 38 cities with a population of 100,000 in 1900. 35 reported electric police patrol systems in 1907, while 33 of the 40 cities with from 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants had such systems.

The Mcndota. 111., fire department claims to have beaten the record for one year. The report from October 28, 1908. to October 26, 1909, showthat the firemen worked eight hours and traveled ½ miles, laid 1,450 feet of hose, 70 feet of ladders and used 20 gallons of chemicals. The insurance carried on property which caught fire $3,300; insurance paid, none. Total loss, $33.