[Fists] Fire Museum telegraph

[Karl]

I received the below email and want to pass to FISTS members.  Anyone down
that way who might be willing to set up a demo as he outlined, please
contact him directly.  Might not be FISTS related, but does promote
telegraphy.  And, who better than FISTS members to do that.

Dear Karl,

Picked up your name on the FISTS web site. I'm the director & curator of the
Fire Museum  of Maryland, located on York York just north of the Baltimore
beltway. This is late notice but...

On Sat. 1 May, 10.00-14.00, we run one of our two large fire apparatus
musters in the front yard. This spring show specializes in hand and horse
drawn equipment, so we operate our 1899 American steam pumping engine, give
rides with a horse drawn hose wagon, and this year we're dragging our 1905
water tower. We'll be flowing water and demonstrating during the day as part
of our educational mission (and having fun). The Dalmatian club will be
here, there will be operating steam models, food for sale. I'm hoping for a
Civil War signalling group that has tentatively agreed to do semaphore
outside. Show is weather permitting. You get the picture...

Before I get to asking you to help, may I insert here another component of
our operations, albeit inside. We have and operate the most extensive
telegraph FD system of any museum in the US. We have boxes, bells, keys,
transmitters, &c. from watch desk to main office, 7,000 feet of wire in the
overhead. The fire departments in the US all used a numerical code, e.g.,
2-3 means OK; 3-2 means repeat (in the Baltimore system). Some departments
switched to International upon transmitting a special code, at which point
the central office would plug in a Morse set. This code was used by chiefs
in some cities and/or linemen, depending upon the city. You may know all of
this already but I thought I better throw this in. We have operators who run
this; they do not know "Morse".

Does your society have members living locally to Lutherville, or within an
hour's drive that could be convinced to come out and help on the 1st? It
would be spectacular to have you set up a pair of tables, run some wires and
send messages during the day. Maybe let visitors try the key... could set up
one set just outside our central office in the rear of the museum and the
other outside somewhere...our main building is 170 feet long. Both tables
could be outside, or both inside. If it rains we'd but you inside to help
salvage something of the event.

If you could do something along these lines but the notice is too short, we
do this event the first Saturday of each May. We have another event that is
inside and that takes place on Sat. the 30th Oct., 6-8 p.m. This is called
"Lantern Night" and we fire up about 15 lanterns, subdue the modern lights,
many wear period attire (of many periods).

The other modus operandi of my plea is to get a telegraphic skill to bear
during a muster or show, even if you are using modern apparatus, as modern
telegraphy is an outgrowth of the 19th century invention, and building those
kinds of bridges is important to us.

So I've rattled on here. Will you help point me in the right direction?

Regards, Steve Heaver
Stephen G. Heaver, 
Director & Curator
FIRE MUSEUM OF MARYLAND
1301 York Road
Lutherville, MD 21093
(410) 321-7500
sgheaver at firemuseummd.org