How to Install Electric Bells, Annunciators, and Alarms. / Including Batteries, Wires and Wiring, Circuits, Pushes, Bells, Burglar Alarms, High and Low Water Alarms, Fire Alarms, Thermostats, Annunciators, and the Location and Remedying of Troubles

by Norman H. Schneider

Having first decided upon the plan, number of bells, pushes, etc. and their location, proceed to run the wires first in order that the pushes, bells, etc. may not be injured.

But where the house is already occupied, as in the majority of cases likely to be met with by the reader, the bell and battery may be set first.

Take the case of an ordinary door bell with the push at the front door, the bell in the kitchen and the battery in the cellar. If possible get the wire on two spools; it will simplify matters if both wires are of different colors. Starting at the push, have a foot of each wire for connection and slack, and fasten each wire lightly to the woodwork with staples, or double-pointed tacks, never putting two wires under one staple nor driving in a staple so it cuts the insulation. Some cases will require a staple about every foot, on straight runs sometimes every three feet.

In many cases the wires can be partly concealed in the angle between a moulding and the wall, or even in a groove of the moulding itself. When running along a skirting, the wires may often be pushed out of sight between it and the floor. Do not attempt to draw the wires too tight or the changes of the weather may break the wires when the woodwork shrinks or swells.

The wires will be, one from the push to the bell, one from the push to the battery, and one from the bell to the battery. So it is probable that the second wire can be run right through a small hole bored in the flooring under the push, but inside the front door. In this case it will be perhaps easier if the spool be left in the cellar and the end of the wire be pushed up from below and stapled to the woodwork near the push, leaving the cellar work to the last. Only one wire will be run then direct to the bell upstairs and it can be better concealed than two.

If necessary it may be drawn under a carpet and not stapled, or it can often be forced into the crack between two boards. But if not, run it along the skirting, following the walls until it reaches below the bell. It is often better to go entirely around a room than to cross below a door.

If a door must be crossed the wire may either run up one side of the frame and down the other or laid beneath the carpet on the sill. The former is preferable, but takes more wire.

In many houses the bell wire as well as the battery wire may be run across the cellar beams ([Fig. 25]), in which case bore a second hole for it near the push; do not draw it through the same hole as the push to battery wire. And, of course, here work upwards with the spool in the cellar.

Having reached the bell location, run the third wire down into the cellar to the battery. Now connect up the push, baring an inch or so of each wire, push them through the holes provided in the push base, screw down the push base and clamp the wires under the washers through which the connection screws run. Do this neatly, be sure the ends of the wires do not stick out, cut off what is left free of the bared ends. Then connect the battery to the wire from the push and the wire from the bell. The last thing is to scrape and fasten the bell wires to the bell binding posts. Do this so that they cannot come loose and that they make good contact.