Gamewell Fire Reporting Box Key Needed
BarryB3940
needs a key for it. These boxes were mounted outside on telephone poles and
were used to report fires, by having a pedestrian pull a lever if a fire was
witnessed. The box is about 12" wide, 5" deep and about 16" tall ( to the peak,
it has a sloped roof) made of aluminium and naturally RED in color. The lock
on it appears to be a lever lock, the nose will only turn when a key is
inserted into the key way. The box also has a patent date of 1926 stamped on
it and a plaque with 326 on it.
Now my questions were these boxes keyed alike and if so does anyone out there
in "lock land" have a spare key floating around? Can anyone give me the idea
of the cuts, depths and spacings for this lock? The box cannot be disassembled
with damaging it, can it? Can anyone help me out? Any help would be
appreciated.
Barry
Skip
Los Angeles used to have hundreds (maybe thousands) of both fire box and police
call boxes. All the fire boxes (all gone now) were keyed alike and all the police call
boxes (mostly gone), that at one time were used for a closed telephone system, were
also keyed alike but with different bitting from the fire boxes. The keys were very common
and were often referred to by people who didn't know what they really were as "jail" keys,
although they are much smaller than the Joliet keys used in most jails here at the time.
I broke a gamewell key once and went to the City locksmith to get another one. He told
me all the keys came precut from Gamewell and I'd have to go to personnel to get
another one.
I have one of the police call boxes and the lock is welded to the door so disassembly
probably wouldn't be an option. The fire boxes I've seen are made in the same way.
They are still in business:
The Gamewell Company
60 Pleasant Street
Ashland, MA 01721
Telephone: (508) 231-1400
FAX: (508) 231-0900
Electronic Mail:
General Information: sa...@gamewell.com
Good luck with the key.
Skip
Jay Hennigan
:
:Los Angeles used to have hundreds (maybe thousands) of both fire box and police
:boxes (mostly gone), that at one time were used for a closed telephone system, were
:also keyed alike but with different bitting from the fire boxes. The keys were very common
:and were often referred to by people who didn't know what they really were as "jail" keys,
:although they are much smaller than the Joliet keys used in most jails here at the time.
The phone call boxes and the traffic signal boxes use round bit keys which
are brass and indeed look a bit like "jail" keys, although much smaller.
Gamewell boxes are flat steel lever locks if I recall correctly.
I have a Gamewell key, if the original poster can send a fax number I'll
fax him a copy of it.
--
Jay Hennigan - Network Administration - j...@west.net
NetLojix Communications, Inc. NASDAQ: NETX - http://www.netlojix.com/
WestNet: Connecting you to the planet. 805 884-6323
Ray Hearn No REPLY
keys. Some of the pictures I saw were good enough to guess the key cuts off
of. Then you could allways ask a collector to send you a photo of the # you
need, mabe it is stamped or noted on the box somewhere?
Ray Hearn
Jay Hennigan <j...@west.net> wrote in message
news:slrn8mutr...@slowpoke.sb.west.net...
Ray Hearn No REPLY
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BarryB3940 <barry...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20000713223622...@ng-fz1.aol.com...
> Recently a customer dropped off a Gamewell Fire Reporting box at the shop
and
> needs a key for it. These boxes were mounted outside on telephone poles
and
> were used to report fires, by having a pedestrian pull a lever if a fire
was
> witnessed. The box is about 12" wide, 5" deep and about 16" tall ( to the
peak,
> it has a sloped roof) made of aluminium and naturally RED in color. The
lock
> on it appears to be a lever lock, the nose will only turn when a key is
> inserted into the key way. The box also has a patent date of 1926 stamped
on
> it and a plaque with 326 on it.
>
> Now my questions were these boxes keyed alike and if so does anyone out
there
> in "lock land" have a spare key floating around? Can anyone give me the
idea
> of the cuts, depths and spacings for this lock? The box cannot be
disassembled
> with damaging it, can it? Can anyone help me out? Any help would be
> appreciated.
>
> Barry
>
Dddlock1
the streets, were all keyed alike. I got a poor original key, that I used to
make an improved one. The original was double sided, and mine is single sided
cut on an ILCO 1063E safe deposit blank, and works fine. The cuts of the key,
on the double sided one starts with a flat tip, I believe there are 6 levers,
at the tip it starts out wide, and tapers down, I would wuess the cuts are
123456, from tip to bow, and then there is a throaght cut. If this info is not
of enough help, contact me and maybe we can work something out as far as
getting you a key.
Dave
Joe Kesselman
impressioning lever locks, but it's supposed to be doable.
--
------------------------------------------------------
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The Walkabout Clearwater Coffeehouse is on summer break
but watch our website for next year's sechedule:
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Ray Hearn No REPLY
described in double sided version at 4x actual size. Check it out before the
auctiuon ends and the photo disappears.
Ray
Dddlock1 <dddl...@cs.com> wrote in message
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