Many of Boston's fire boxes are over a century old and are still operating smoothly

Many of Boston's fire boxes are over a century old and are still operating smoothly
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[@tedz2usa]

On June 18th, 2024, there was a 2-hour outage state-wide of the 911 system. Boston officials instructed the public to use the red fire boxes to indicate emergency (along with a list of police phone numbers). That day was a rare, modern-day example of how an old but reliable technology can save the day when modern tech fails.

[@Spainnyboi]

EXACTLY!

[@gtb81.]

yep, the simpler the better, less parts to go bad

[@Sammysapphira]

Hardly. 911 systems and general phone line systems are neolithic at this point. Calling it modern is very inaccurate. A shocker that when 1 system goes down, another system is still up.... duh? This is like saying "An airplane flight was canceled, thankfully horse carriages are still operational. Goes to show modern transport is unreliable and old fashion is way better!"

[@gtb81.]

@@Sammysapphira cell towers are not that old, at most some date to the 90's if that far back. landlines may date to the 60's in the most aged systems. they keep the cell towers rather up to date

[@andyk192]

​@@Sammysapphira You missed the point completely. It wasn't the phone systems that went down that day, it was an issue with the firewall in the main call centers that malfunctioned and caused 911 to be inaccessible. I would consider a digital computer based phone system to be pretty modern. Also no need to be so negative here. The original commenter is correct, it was very nice to have a backup option to contact emergency services that day.

[@kilodeltaeight]

San Francisco maintains their fire and police call boxes for the same reason: they’re reliable, don’t require power, and provide an extra layer of protection during an earthquake.

[@Jimmy_Jones]

Does the police box travel in time?

[@alatherley]

I have responded to many of these pulled boxes during an emergency . If your cell phone dies they still work.

[@tvviewer4500]

If it was installed today it would be plastic and have to be repaired or replaced every 3-5 years

[@paradiselost9946]

it just wouldnt work. cost several million per unit. some CEO somewhere would get a nice bonus.

[@PascalGienger]

No. Switches and mechanical ingredients are way too expensive. This would be a cheap mass produced board with crappy software on it emulating all this with a need to be connected to a cloud service which is provisioned by bloated Terraform, Jenkins and the other stuff around to deploy the server collecting fire alarms which could have been coded in 50 lines. And then they would put "AI" in it via another cloud service to check whether there is real a fire based on some toddler-based "AI" models. Ah yes, the whole system would cost 100,000 a month to pay to the cloud provider and all the 3rd party parasi äh "cloud improvement services". On top, each instance would take 5 minutes to start because they need to import a super bloated monitoring library and initialize storage systems via another service. So if your instances crash after 4 minutes due to a programming error or missing resources you can watch it live dying slowly. It then goes out to the news as "emergency system breakdown ...."

[@MegaSuperfatguy]

It is nice to see something simple, effective, and reliable. I hope the repair man has an apprentice in training. Coming from someone who repairs old machines daily, full time training, seeing multiple types of failures from common to not, and learning how to remedy them is how you truly understand something. At least in my industry, it's rare that enthusiasts can keep up with full time pace despite what they claim themselves being capable of.

[@tech-bore8839]

"simple, effective, and reliable" Exactly. It's refreshing to see something useful that doesn't have unnecessary components (i.e. wifi, bluetooth, touch screen, etc.) shoved into it.

[@mnoxman]

Just to point out. Several recent Cellular outages have happened and a call box system that is completely separate from that is (what's called in the biz) a disaster recovery fail safe.

[@Mordecrox]

Reminds me of when I almost enacted a worst case scenario plan but stopped because the manager (who we had strong evidence of having been held hostage with power and comms cut out by bad actors) also did his part in following the plan ... Which involved driving to the nearest cell towers, previously mapped, and brief us on the actual situation and de-escalate any escalation we might have done (establish radio comms and move staff and assets instead of sending in cops and armed security) Part of the plan involved always having a standby POTS phone line as last ditch effort fallback and that failure made us assume intentional tampering instead of sudden weather cutting power lines and other freak coincidences.

[@GreatFoxGodOniKitsune]

Fire Box repair seems like a perfect job

[@GorgeousGeorge525]

We had these in NYC when I was a kid. I can still remember the clicking/whirring sound!

[@TheMW2informer]

There’s one of these (looks EXACTLY the same but plastic) that was in my grandpas basement and I always thought it was hooked up, he passed away on Memorial Day and while cleaning out the house I found out inside is a phone and it was hooked up, the phone had a dial tone!

[@thecooldude9999]

They used to sell those novelty phones in 90s and 2000s catalogs, they’re neat.

[@jamessantagati4999]

I have visited the BFD Annunciator building in the Fenway. It is as old and still operable and in every day use. All of the call boxes are handled there. The equipment is all original. It's a working museum, actually.

[@BaarBear]

Of course these fire boxes still work. They come from an age when people took pride in their work and cared about quality.

[@REWYRED]

I guess this technically and others that were like it would be the first "addressable" fire alarm system

[@adambycholski1670]

I miss hearing the boxes getting tapped out and the bell, we got rid of the system in the late 90's always thought it was a terrible idea.

[@ScottRothsroth0616]

(1.) Besides “If it’s not broken don’t fix it” (in this case the fire boxes), they are now unique (among U.S. cities) to Boston. (2.) It would be cool if there is an app showing location of the fire boxes

[@wolfgangmcq]

San Francisco has an identical system of fire alarm boxes.

[@TheLordOfNothing]

There is. Google "Boston firebox map"

[@sg39g]

Open Street Map?

[@TheLordOfNothing]

There is a website.

[@prestongarvey5869]

Old Not Obsolete.

[@HobbyOrganist]

I have a number of Gamewell boxes as well as some from NY City which had custom-made boxes and pedestals made for them. The most beautiful box is the "VF" pedestal from the 1920s, I have one from Brooklyn dated on it's base 1929, the guy in charge back the Victor Fine overhauled the system and these massive pedestals were placed all over the city, they stand 7 feet high and weigh 900 pounds! I have a video of it on youtube, just add this to the base url; watch?v=4ZD6HV-oU5

[@ged3680]

Great work gentlemen. Ged, UK

[@christophergaff2617]

Due to phone stupidity most people have no clue where they are at...do realize that if you broke down or suffer a medical emergency they could not find without the box

[@Sammysapphira]

Phones literally have GPS and can even pinpoint you based on cell tower pings. You would need to crawl to a box on broken legs to pull it.

[@jfwfreo]

I wonder if any places still use the kind of fire alarm seen in a widely circulated old image where when you pull it, part of the alarm locks around your wrist until unlocked by the authorities (the idea supposedly being a way to identify who actually pulled the alarm in the event of a prank alarm pull)

[@ruffian2952]

I know of a town where police call boxes are still in service.

[@cherylm2C6671]

This means someone thought ahead- good parentage! I'd like a few. Good system!

[@moneyindabank]

Never change them.

[@NYCS19339]

Amazing

[@F40M07]

Boston please don’t replace them!!!

[@AppalachianMountaineer1863]

Call boxes work without the need of cellular service or power. Removing them while still being fully functional because they are old is beyond stupid. I hope Boston continues to operate them well into the future

[@BritishEngineer]

It’s not beyond stupid. A level of maintenance goes into them.

[@AppalachianMountaineer1863]

@@BritishEngineer yes it is beyond stupid, call boxes use no electricity besides needing the bare minimum to power the telegraph pulse. The maintenance is very minimum less intensive than any modern fiber systems or cellular systems, if it was maintenance heavy they wouldn’t exist, and it’s hardline communication, it won’t break down like a WiFi or cellular system can. San Francisco uses call boxes still and they’ve survived many earthquakes

[@wolfgangmcq]

​@@AppalachianMountaineer1863 San Francisco ran out of "Out of Order" signs for their alarm boxes a few years ago and had to wrap broken ones in a red towel for a while because so many of them stopped working. They are robust, yes, but the system is nearly 160 years old and that age is showing; the city spent about $1.2M keeping it going in 2018 alone.

[@AppalachianMountaineer1863]

@@wolfgangmcq $1.2 million is quite a small investment in the upkeep of a public utility in a city the size of San Francisco

[@jeremysmith7176]

Here from Tom Scott's newsletter.

[@JollyTVance]

No one cares

[@dstutz]

Tom has previously said that he doesn't like people leaving comments like this on the videos he links to, btw

[@jeremysmith7176]

@@dstutz thank you for the information.

[@Trunp]

Didn't even know he had one! Cool!

[@TrentonDominy]

This is why even it this modern age of technology with computers and cellphones the old technology is not totally obsolete. Every technology is eventually replaced by something new and better but sometimes a technological marvel from long ago is just as important today as it was in then and as long as you teach the basics of maintaining them and company’s still supply parts or you fabricate them yourself the technology your great great grandparents used now be used by you and then the next generation.

[@MichaelLaferriere]

You should have included the morse keyer in case the first arriving need more or more specialized help. They would be able to communicate using morse code. I dont believe the cams are using morse though, but numbers, 9 clicks for 9, 2 for 2 as opposed to ----. & ..--- Easier to hear and make out especially if you dont know morse.

[@millsyinnz]

Interesting. I wish we still had these where I live, though we have a couple of speaker boxes that can be used to hail a taxi. Well, supposedly, as I am not too sure if they are still used.

[@botsareeverywhere]

If it works it works, no sense in changing it

[@Krod-wj2cy]

“They don’t make em like they used to”

[@phishENchimps]

that is because they were constructed properly.

[@JohnMcMahon.]

I feel like, when guys like Mario @1:06 finally retire, these things will fall into disrepair. ☹️

[@georgieippolito9924]

I'm pissed they removed them from my town. I was so ready to pull it if theres any fires on my walk, I don't think I will make the call now they removed it to spread the message. these are important to have around

[@durandjohnson1321]

Seattle got rid of theirs some thirty years ago!

[@czechmate6916]

We used to have these several years ago but the city did away with them pretty quickly because the hoodlums were destroying them or setting them off for no reason. Costing the city tons of money a year.

[@ronaldkovacs7080]

Fye-Eh bocks in Boston

[@tech-bore8839]

"Technology...if you can call it that" Such an ignorant line. Just because it's doesn't rely on Google/Apple or connecting to the internet doesn't mean it's useless.

[@Doc_Rainbow]

if it works, dont fix it.

[@GrnArrow092]

My city had a system like this, but it was deactivated about 30 years ago.

[@BentleyTypeR]

Well it's settled then They're staying!!

[@jnethe17]

No dei back then

[@tatersncorn]

This is why we need to invest in infrastructure. High speed rail please.

[@jamesdavis5096]

The boxes are repaired at 200 Southampton Street. I googled it.

[@19brs73]

Better hope Jamal bowman doesn’t visit.

[@davidpatriot1082]

id seriously like to know where all the infrastructure money is going

[@protennis365]

Today some prank TikTok or KZbin channel will just pull this fire box for no reason to get view on their channel.

[@gantmj]

What happens when the repair guy dies? We have a competency crisis that's only getting worse because Boomers refuse to retire or pass on the knowledge, so when they do move on, no one else knows how to do their jobs well enough.

[@EOWS812]

there are tons of fire alarm enthusiasts that repair and collect these.

[@darrellmay4502]

I believe that many of those Fires could be for Insurance reasons!, as to collect the money!,✨

[@reggieflintstone9612]

Their trains don't work

[@MonkeyJedi99]

That's what happens when a fire department operates a railway! Or should I instead be outraged at something else? You comment was unclear. Fun side note, you can swap the first two letters of unclear and go nuclear.

[@ph11p3540]

They must get a lot more false alarms from these alarm boxes than a poorly set up building alarm system. Most modern cities have retired these in the 1960s

[@MichaelLaferriere]

They work when everything else doesnt. And they arent expensive to maintain like whatever replacement your "modern" cities replaced them with.

[@paradiselost9946]

meh. rip them out. outdated. obsolete. replace them with some fancy modern digital ecofriendly power saving device. far better. can have a few politicians show up and have their photo taken as they grin inanely. give themselves a payrise and bonus besides for implementing such revolutionary technology. next day, everything turns to crap. surprised pikachu face. thats how we run things here in the land down under. no outdated old technology for us! nope, we got the fibre optics and the way of the future! lol... i think they expect us to perform smoke signals in an emergency. digitally...

[@firedogman2280]

These boxes are the most advanced you can get, without going digital, the problem with digital is that its unreliable, would you rather have a digital signal that bounces between 20+ towers and can be never received because someone fucked the code, or a direct telegram to fire dispatch that calls emergency services directly

[@RestlessAmbitionsVlogs]

proof that boston dynamics robots will have true staying power

[@RestlessAmbitionsVlogs]

theyll probably evict you from your home and live in it in a century, who knows!

[@seanrife4168]

Back then things were built to last as long as possible while being made in America. Now a days everything is built to be as cheap as possible so you’re forced to buy a whole new object instead of simply fixing the existing one. Planned obsolescence

[@judymarlene3414]

Just to think president joey diapers was a young man of 45 when these were installed.