Question:
I'm considering purchasing a Gamewell fire alarm box at the local antique store. The owners tag says it's "from the 20's and works". I want to know by describing it here whether you think it is indeed from the 1920's and not the 50's-70's. Here goes. The box is around 17 inches tall with the pitched roof. It has a red light in a cage screwed into the threaded top. There are also threads on the bottom of the box so it can go on a pole. There are reflective stickers on the left and right sides that say "FIRE" diagonally. The solid front door has a white T shaped knob which opens the box. Inscribed on the front door is: FOR FIRE BREAK GLASS OPEN DOOR PULL HANDLE LET GO ~~ o ~~ o 597 o The Gamewell Co New York Again the front door is solid with no glass panel or pull lever. On the back of the front door it says "THINK - A FALSE ALARM CAN CAUSE A DEATH". Also on the back of the front door is the inscription in ink, "Forest 20th ave south" (I'm in the Seattle area and this is a local street). From memory, the second door to the guts says something like "pull this down" and has the lever poking through a curved cutout. I pulled the lever and it clicked for maybe 20 seconds then reset. Can someone confirm that this was made in the 20's or do you think the owner is pushing a later model? Unlike other boxes from the 20's I couldn't find a mfd. date anywhere on this one. This box has been repainted and there is an area on the front (just below the Gamewell lightning logo) with a few horizontal raised areas that *might* have been some wording, like the mfd. date etc. If this is a newer model do they hold any value like the older boxes?

Answer: The box you describe is the so called "Instructional Door" and was made from 1916 to 1922- plus lots of later replacement parts and boxes to keep them operating years later. The name is because this is the first Gamewell box to tell the citizen how to send in an alarm. Previous models had a key to be given to citizens or when they no longer lived in the neighborhood a field installed weather resistant key guard protected it- and was later made a production item. Your box was produced as a response to complaints that citizens didn't know what to do with the boxes with a keyguard similar to what your box should have. The one thing that concerns me is that your description covers what the citizen should do with the box, but the keyguard, which holds the glass to be broken, isn't mentioned. If it's missing or vandalized there is a problem as a lot more boxes than keyguards survived. There is a repro item out there which is quite good, after maybe 10 years of improvement, but not cheap and doesn't have all the features of the original- like the lock to hold in the glass. Dating these boxes comes mainly from the overall design of the case and inner works and some earlier ones are now being faked. There are no reliable dates in the box, with most of the ones seen being mold or part numbers. Some numbers rubber-stamped on the works are inspection dates or when a movement was swapped out for repairs or rebuilt. Patent dates show up on many works but are almost useless in dating the item unless you know exactly what part of the works was patented that day. Boxes like yours, with a complete keyguard, matching codewheel and number plate, no major case cracks (these were cast iron and prone to cracking in the corners of the case) and guaranteed to be as described retail for about $160-$230.