FIRE CHIEF RECALLS EARLY DAYS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 57, 11 March 1946, Page 4

FIRE CHIEF RECALLS EARLY DAYS

“HELL-FIRE” PROCTOR’S DRIVING FEATS INVENTED ALARM SYSTEM USED IN WANGANUI Memories of “Hell-Fire” Proctor, Dunedin’s first fire engine driver and New Zealand champion cyciitt and motor-cyclist, were revived for Supcrin ende/ht N. M. Ross, Wanganui lire chief, when he read in a Wellington paper that installation of a new alarm system in the capital city .was well under way. “Hell-Fire” Proctor got his nickname because of the daring manner in which he drove lire engines and motor-cycles, feeing credited in the latter capacity with beilig ihe first man to ride a motorcycle on Cook's Gardens at racing speed.

For many years his reputation has • *s‘ed on a much ti mer ba e, as Mi . G. Proctor, invertor of an outstandingly successful two-way lire alarm system. “Wellington is soon to have the most modern lire alarm system in New Zealand,” the paper’s account began—but the same sys em, the invention of Mr. Proctor, has been in. operation in Wanganui since 1919. E sentially it is the same as the one now being installed in Wellington, which is the last city in the Dominion to adopt it. Superintendent Ross told the ‘“Chronicle” yesterday that the Proctor two-wav method practically eliminated the possibility of mechanical failure in blocking a ball. A broken wire or short circuit was immediately revealed on a panel at the Central Fire St a'ion, and the earth circuit immediately took over alone. The system also indicates fairly closely where a fault has developed, so that repairs involve little trouble. The system being discarded in Wellington is known to firemen as a “one chance” one, as a single fault makes

the alarm line useless. The Duplex alarm panel has attached to it a very precise recording apparatus which punches out on an endless tape the number of the alarm box, the time and date. Though the apparatus is an intricate one, it will go on recording hours, days and months for years without adjustment. The machine in the Wanganui Central Fire Station will go on keeping its record of lire alarms, allowing for date vagaries such as leap years, until some time in the 1950’5. “Mr. Proctor was working on his invention in 1912 when I joined the Dunedin Fire Brigade,” Superintendent Ross said yesterday. “He had become the fust motor fire engine driver in Now Zealand in 1908, and all Dunedin u ed to turn out to sec him handle the machine. He was working on his invention when I firsknew him. People were sceptical of his idea then. The first model of the panel I saw was attached to the back of a kerosene case.” Superintendent. Ross said that. Mr. Proctor’s invention was installed in Dunedin during World War 1., and had since been adopted by most lire boardj in New Zealand, Wellington being the las'; of the main ones to do so. The system was ihe most faultand foolproof one he knew of. The secretary of the Wanganui Fire Board, Mr. G. Murch, also recalled Mr. Proctor’s prowess as a tire engine driver and motor-cycle rider. When “Hell-Fire” Proctor, idol of all small boys of Ihe time, appeared on Cook’s Ga*dens Io make the first motor-cycle speed run on the ground, he used a bag of sand to keep the machine weighed down, and provided the large crowd of spec’.a tors with plenty ot thrills.