Fire Station Magic

I had heard stories of such but here is the proof, an actual article telling of the amazing workings going on in the fire station. electronic devices that started the engine of the particular machine that was going out when the alarm went off along with other magical things. I suppose you could call them the apple or sony of their time . please leave us a comment at the bottom of the page if you would like to say anything

Creator

Northern Daily Telegraph

Date of creation

14th aug 1941

Date of coverage

1940

Place

Blackburn

Contributor

Blackburn Library

Reference number

BP/BP5/2/0006/0003/0013

Comments about this page

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The leads that plugged into the rear of the fire engines provided automatic starting of the vehicle, battery charging and sump oil heating. The driver had to ensure that the gear stick that was fitted with a bracket which activated the system only if the vehicle was in neutral position. To be honest the system was not very good because the engine started and if the driver did not catch the throttle the engine flooded and stalled and became difficult to start. So that part of the system was rarely used.
As you can see from the picture the gauges at the top monitored the battery charging , each vehicle had its own switch which when selected illuminated a red light above the vehicle to alert crews to which vehicle was responding. The system worked on a pre-selection system and only worked when the station turnout system was activated.
Bob France Retired Firefighter
By Bob France (11/03/2015)