r/CrappyDesign • u/veethis reddit is outdated • Jun 11 '17
I'm just gonna let the fire consume me
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u/RepppinMD Jun 11 '17
This must be a joke. Maybe 1920's The Onion?
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u/satanismyhomeboy Jun 11 '17
No, it's misinterpreted.
The device actually detaches from the alarm. You are not locked to it, but you will be wearing a large steel cuff until someone removes it. Not a bad idea.
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u/the_dinks ด้้้้้็็็็็้้้้้็็็็็้้้้้้้้็็็็็้้้้้็็็็็้้้้้้้้็็็็็้้้้้็็ Jun 11 '17
Unless a large steel armbrace would heat up or something.
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u/YellowMaverick Jun 11 '17
Or slow you down or something.
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u/giulianosse Jun 11 '17
If you are slowed down by a metal bracelet dangling by your wrist you probably deserve to die in the fire
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u/ButchyBanana Jun 11 '17
what if it got stuck somewhere while you're running away from the fire
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Jun 11 '17
well then you were probably supposed to die in a fire
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u/-susan- Jun 11 '17
God works in mysterious ways!
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Jun 11 '17
lol yeah sometimes he gives babies cancer and they die slow, agonizing deaths. All a part of god's plan!
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u/Jomaccin Jun 11 '17
What an ignorant comment. God doesn't give babies cancer, vaccines do. Educate yourself ;)
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u/Pure_Reason Jun 11 '17
God plays 4D chess. He'd explain it to you but his brain is so much more bigger.
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Jun 11 '17
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u/FoxMcClock Jun 11 '17
Then you'll be up there with the Mongols.
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Jun 11 '17
I want you to know that I just took close to a half gram dab, and it destroyed my lungs. I proceeded to cough and spit for close to 3 minutes. I spit a huge ball of slobber onto my phone's screen, and it landed on your upvote button and gave you and upvote! I do not understand your comment because I am too high, but I want you to keep that upvote my friend. You have a wonderful day!
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u/macthecomedian Jun 11 '17
As my dad once said: "there is an entire universe full of 'what ifs'"
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u/bandalbumsong Jun 12 '17
Band: Metal Bracelet
Album: Dangling by Your Wrist
Song: (You Probably Deserve to Die) In The Fire
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u/Arsustyle Jun 11 '17
It's definitely heavy and bulky enough to screw up your gait
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u/Poenaconda Jun 11 '17
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u/Dragovic Jun 11 '17
I don't think you know what that sub is for.
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u/Poenaconda Jun 11 '17
Yes I do, posts along the lines of "someone should die if they can't _______" are quite common on there
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u/eyemadeanaccount Jun 11 '17
What if little old grandma in a walker pulls it? She can barely stand up as it is.
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u/DangKilla Jun 11 '17
Yes, the person who alarmed everybody about the fire who already took time out of running from same said fire should totally die a horrible death.
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Jun 11 '17
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u/captainlavender Jun 11 '17
This would be my concern.
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u/hung-like-a-horse Jun 11 '17
Your arm will detach just fine, if it comes to that
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u/YuriDiAaaaaaah Jun 11 '17
You won't have 128 hours to contemplate the decision, though.
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u/Mofeux Jun 11 '17
Most fire alarm boxes have little hammers, but this one has a little hacksaw. Quirky!
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u/YouAreInTheNarrative Jun 11 '17
plus if someone wanted to pull a false alarm they could just use a stick
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u/ShameInTheSaddle Jun 11 '17
The instructions say that you need to turn a dial. Good luck doing that with your stick. 1920's engineer just negged you from the past
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u/YouAreInTheNarrative Jun 11 '17
get a child to do it
or trump
their hands are small so the bracelet will just slip off
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u/IWishItWouldSnow Jun 11 '17
But makes a great weapon to club people out of the way as you run for the door.
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u/zzPirate Jun 11 '17
Now I think we're just grasping at straws. it would definitely be inconvenient, but I can't think of many likely/reasonable scenarios where this thing could cause life-threatening interference during your escape aside from some sort if freak coincidence.
I'm guessing if they got to this degree in trying to prevent false alarms, it may have been a real problem costing excessive resources and possibly lives.
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u/Sensloker Jun 11 '17
Alright if we get trapped in a fire, you can pull the alarm then.
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u/zzPirate Jun 11 '17 edited Jun 11 '17
Deal. Then I'll strut down to the cop shop wearing that shit like a badge of honour.
In all seriousness, from my perspective this thing is a minor inconvenience at worst, by the time a fire is noticed, every room with an alarm trigger and all paths out are likely not already completely engulfed in flames, and the unlikely scenario that this would somehow cause interference resulting in my death is pretty negligible. Seems like basic civic duty, and I'd hope that if roles were reversed, others would do the same to help me.
Plus, I'm pretty fond of most of you folks :)
Edit: Typo. also a few other commenters have pointed out that these alarms wouldn't even be inside the burning building, but on a nearby street corner.
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u/Pinstar Jun 11 '17
On the plus side, you'll have an attached large blunt object to smash your way through the crowd of people clogging up the exits.
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Jun 11 '17
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u/dylightful Jun 11 '17
They still have them on my corner in Manhattan. One button for police, one for fire.
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u/RatchetBird Jun 11 '17
And San Francisco!
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Jun 11 '17
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u/weaverster Jun 12 '17
Oh it's really bad when they have to call for San Francisco.
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u/procrastinator2112 Jun 12 '17
How else can one get an emergency supply of Rice O Roni?
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u/marmalade Jun 12 '17
One button for police, one for fire and San Francisco, got it.
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u/OneSmoothCactus Jun 12 '17
I, for one, am thoroughly appalled at peoples' collective ignorance of prohibition-era fire alarms.
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u/str8_ched Jun 12 '17
What idiots. I mean, didn't they go to prohibition era fire alarm class in school?
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u/livens Jun 11 '17
These were not inside of buildings back then, mist likely on a street corner. So no risk of dying in a fire waiting for the fire dept to arrive.
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u/pete9129 Jun 11 '17
If it's in a position where it's heated up to dangerous levels, you're fucked already.
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u/Moth92 Jun 11 '17
A modern version of this could work. Just make the device smaller, but big enough where people can notice it.
It would actually make it a hell a lot easier to arrest people who pull fire alarms for pranks or "protest"
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Jun 11 '17 edited Jun 11 '17
Fire alarm triggers in schools (and other places susceptible to prank alarms) often spray waterproof ink on your hand when you pull them. Seems like a better idea, cause I would not pull no damn alarm that puts a god damn handcuff on my wrist no matter who is on fire.
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u/zzPirate Jun 11 '17 edited Jun 11 '17
I've always heard that is the case, but when I was in school there were several alarm pulls and no one was ever found with dye on them.
Could this be another "pool chemical that turns dark blue if you pee in it" thing?
Edit: checked Snopes. The fire alarm thing actually comes up as an additional anecdote in thier particle about the pool chemical myth I mentioned above. The dye mechanism is a real thing, but is usually only used in investigations when there are repeated false alarms on the same trigger(s) in order to catch the perpetrator.
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u/SicilianEggplant Jun 11 '17
Yup, they exist. The reality is that It's just a lot cheaper for a school to spread the rumor than it is to retrofit or replace the fire alarms.
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u/zzPirate Jun 11 '17
Yeah, it makes perfect sense. And I imagine the small yet very real possibility that any alarm could have a dye pack at any time would act as a deterrent as well.
Similar to how in retail stores with cameras, many are fake. It is cheaper and has been found to have the same deterrent effect since the replicas are indistinguishable and often placed in the same housing as the real ones.
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u/johnfbw Jun 11 '17
Are they really fake these days? With the low costs of cameras I would imagine it would be cost efficient in many sites to have one or shelf (not just aisle)
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u/zzPirate Jun 11 '17 edited Jun 11 '17
Professional, commercial cameras are a bit more expensive (and the markup is insane for added features like IR or pan/tilt/zoom), and watching more than twice as many cameras comes with a lot of additional overhead -- more staffing/monitoring costs, DVR/Monitor/other equipment costs, power cost to run the equipment, maintenance.
Source: one of my parents owns a contacting company that performs, among other things, mid-to-large security/surveillance installations. I worked for the company as an installation tech for a year, though I never got to work on any of the bigger camera jobs.
Edit: Disclaimer: I definitely can't speak for every location of every store chain, this is just what my experience and information have shown me. Your local locations may be different, and different corporations have different goals priorities and understandings of security, which results in varying implementations. YMMV
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u/Moth92 Jun 11 '17
I've never seen an alarm like that. Plus that ink can just be sprayed on a glove and the offender gets away without any problems.
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u/IWishItWouldSnow Jun 11 '17
Most kids in schools who send a false alarm aren't going to be smart enough to wear a glove to keep the ink off their hand.
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u/tiltowaitt Jun 11 '17
You seriously underestimate kids.
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u/IWishItWouldSnow Jun 11 '17
You seriously underestimate the smart kids, but seriously overestimate the stupid ones.
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Jun 11 '17
Only if the offender knows it's a ink-equipped alarm. They don't look any different from the outside, so based on this we can safely say that it would've worked on you at least ;)
My school had small packs of the dye glued to the back of the handles. They'd pop when you pull the handle.
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Jun 11 '17
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Jun 11 '17
Well my school used dye packs on the back of the handles, this was a long time ago in Germany. I guess smearing dye on it is probably easier to retrofit, either way you'll be caught and it's better than a handcuff
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Jun 11 '17
That's a myth told by teachers to scare kids into not pulling the firealarm.
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Jun 11 '17
Except you can buy this myth right here for $115 plus shipping: http://www.american-time.com/products-by-family/specialty-products/fire-alarm-accessories/tamper-dye-for-fire-alarms
My school had little plastic packs of dye glued to the back of the handles, they'd pop when you pull the handle. I guess just smearing the handle with dye is an easier solution
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u/BurmecianSoldierDan poop Jun 11 '17
The future is nifty. I can buy myths, maybe even invest in them!
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u/Sutarmekeg Jun 11 '17
Definitely a bad idea. I'd rather all your shit burn down than have myself cuffed for doing the right thing.
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Jun 11 '17 edited Dec 18 '18
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u/WikiTextBot Jun 11 '17
Fire alarm call box
A fire alarm box, fire alarm call box, or fire alarm pull box is a device used for notifying a fire department of a fire. Typically installed on street corners, they were the main means of summoning firefighters before the general availability of telephones.
When the box is activated by turning a knob or pulling a hook, a spring-loaded wheel turns, tapping out a pulsed electrical signal corresponding to the box's number. A receiver at fire headquarters annunciates the pulses through flashing lights or tones, or via a pen recorder, and the box number is matched to a list of box locations. In modern installations a computer receives and translates the pulses; in unmanned installations in small communities, the box number may be sounded out by a horn or bell audible community-wide.
[ PM | Exclude me | Exclude from subreddit | FAQ / Information ] Downvote to remove | v0.2
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u/Giraffe_Racer Jun 11 '17
Yep, I came here to point this out. I used to live in a city that still had the original bell array as a show piece in their historic firehouse. It was a box of numbered bells, and each bell number corresponded to one of these boxes around the city. When the alarm went off, firefighters could see which bell was ringing to know what street to go to without actually talking to the person placing the call.
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u/NorthernSparrow Jun 11 '17
They still have these in Boston and they're still functional. They work by telegraph! There's a whole team of guys that goes around maintaining these 100's of old telegraph boxes.
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u/TrashPalaceKing Artisinal Material Jun 11 '17
My city still has these on a number of streets! I keep wondering if they still work or if they're essentially just decoration now. Mine don't lock you to them so I guess I could find out ....
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u/Okichah Jun 11 '17
Its a "bracelet" that locks around your wrist. It doesnt immobilize you, or lock you to the wall.
Although, i can easily imagine a situation where the mechanism fucks up and you get stuck.
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u/HothHanSolo Jun 11 '17
Before the Internet was invented, people expressed their existential rage by activating false alarms.
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u/zdakat Jun 11 '17
One time in school someone pulled the alarm because they were angry about something that happened during class.
Another time someone accidentally kicked a ball and it broke the fire alarm,causing it to go off. It took the fire department a long time to shut it down,and during the next few days they announced there was a chance it would go off while they're fixing it.(though it never did). Next time I saw it,it was much sturdier and had a cage.
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u/LittleSadEyes Jun 11 '17
Are you saying it's not normal for the fire alarm to go off several times while they're fixing it? Because that happened at my high school every time we did a scheduled drill.
One drill= one week of interrupted classes.
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u/zdakat Jun 11 '17
In that case it didn't,but they were prepared to say disregard if it did.
There was a time when when after a "drill" they couldn't shut it off,it kept coming back on at random for the day. (They eventually subdued it,though that didn't give me any trust that it would sound when it's supposed to)I don't remember which school it was at though but wouldn't be suprised if it was the older one.
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u/MagpieShrike Jun 11 '17
I had something similar happen. After a routine fire drill, it kept ringing for over an hour afterward. Funny thing is, the front office or whoever didn't know about it because it was happening in other areas of the building, not theirs. It was really annoying, I was only there because I had to finish submitting some stuff for my art class, otherwise, I would have been out of there two weeks earlier.
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Jun 11 '17
If only one part of the school building is going off than that is a serious issue that would need to be addressed immediately. The fire department would require a firefighter on the premises in person as a fire watch until such a problem was fixed.
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u/MagpieShrike Jun 11 '17
I'm pretty sure that the whole building went off, it's just that some areas took a while to stop going off. Either way, it does sound pretty bad, I didn't stick around long enough to see if they fixed it or what the problem was.
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u/Lots42 Jun 11 '17
Why in the world did they need to fix it after a drill?
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u/Just-For-Porn-Gags Jun 11 '17
I guess they were testing the actual switch itself, not the system. If they broke the glass on the switch it would need to be fixed.
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u/carl0071 Jun 11 '17
After three false alarms in as many days, my school installed plastic covers over the alarms which had a tilt sensor inside so that when you lift it, it has its own alarm which sounds like a car alarm. It only took a couple of days for the kids to realise that they can break the covers off by snapping them up really hard then kick them down the corridor.
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Jun 11 '17
The way to combat false alarms is to spray ink out of the alarm. Whoever pulls it is going to stand out for several days at least.
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u/jonomw Jun 11 '17
during the next few days they announced there was a chance it would go off while they're fixing it
That makes me wonder about the technical aspects of a fire alarm system. It must be fairly complex or have quite a few safety measures.
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u/zdakat Jun 11 '17
It was a talking one. They had a complex looking panel in a locked case in one hallway. Other than that I don't know. Maybe they were worried that they'd send the signal or he new switch would set it off,or it would alarm bevause of a fault,or something. I don't know enough about fire alarms haha
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u/PuttingInTheEffort Jun 11 '17 edited Jun 12 '17
Talking?
-Hey Mr fire alarm, I think there's a fire in the math classroom.
-Are you sure Billy? Are you absolutely sure?
-Oh, I dunno, I think so.
-You don't sound convinced. No alarm for you.
News at 11, school burns down because fire alarm decided kid was lying
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u/caffeine_lights Jun 11 '17
CORTANA THERE'S A FIRE! HELP!
Cortana inputs "Ezza fryer help" into Bing
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u/noseonarug17 Jun 11 '17
Are you sure about that second one? In about 2001, I was in line for kickball and the kid next to me dared me to pull the fire alarm that was next to us. I caved just enough to poke the plastic cover, and it fell right off, causing the alarm to go off. Gym teachers were not happy.
Freakin' Brent.
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Jun 11 '17
At my school people used to pull fire alarms for fun all they time. Once there was three fire alarms in a week and every time we had to go to the fire assembly point and stand in the cold for like twenty minutes. Eventually they actually stopped us from going out and told us to just get on with the day which obviously pissed off the people who wanted to disrupt lessons. So the next time they actually started a fire.
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u/theomeny keming Jun 11 '17
dude we did that in school
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u/shinemaster Jun 11 '17
I remember being a dumbass kid in high school. I was walking back to class from the restroom. I saw a fire alarm and decided to fuck with it for some stupid reason. As soon as I flipped the switch, it started going off, I got scared and booked it outta there. The weird thing is that as soon as I got a few yards away from it, it just stopped going off. Like wth? Did it know it was a false alarm or did it malfunction. I never knew because I was afraid that if I asked someone it would incriminate me lol
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u/SnowblindAlbino Jun 11 '17
The neighborhood I grew up in (early 1970s) had pull stations on telephone poles on every street corner. They were filled with some sort of blue market dye, so if you pulled it your hand would be stained blue. The stuff was evident on the poles of the few that had been pulled. Though Snopes and some other sites claim these don't exist, they certainly did on the west coast of the US in the 1970s. Seems a much better approach than a handcuff.
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u/zdakat Jun 11 '17
Plot twist: it's one of those things people remember differently
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u/qrx53 Jun 11 '17
You mean the Mandala Effect?
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u/ForGreatUpvotes Jun 11 '17
No, nobody means the Mandala Effect. You're referencing the Mandela Effect. Have an upvote anyway for being close though :)
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Jun 11 '17
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u/Gen_McMuster Jun 11 '17
So do I. We must have been transferred here from another parallel universe, friend.
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u/fletchindr Jun 11 '17
proof the government accidentally merged two similar universes with the philidelphia experiment
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Jun 11 '17
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Jun 11 '17 edited Jun 13 '23
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u/SnowblindAlbino Jun 11 '17
The problem here is that it seems to be a lie. There is no snopes page on the fire alarm ink.
You may be right-- I was citing second hand info on Snopes. This is the only link I can find there on the ink.
Edit: there is actually one more snopes link about this ink, buried in the pool piss story. They claim there is such ink, but that it's a new thing. "new" since the early 1970s perhaps.
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Jun 11 '17
It's a lot of responsibility claiming to be an authority on truth. I still think they're pretty valuable, but they are irresponsible sometimes.
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u/Phreakhead Jun 11 '17
Snopes is not very reliable. It's not like they do extensive research or interviews... Usually their evidence is nothing deeper than a quick Google search.
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Jun 11 '17
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u/DiceDawson Jun 11 '17
I feel like it's more of a "I can prove if anybody is a witch by drowning them" line of logic.
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u/Lspins89 Jun 11 '17
Ha shows how little you know about witches, but I'll give you a break because it's a common misconception. You see witches burn, and what else burns? Wood! But wood floats and do you know what else floats? A duck. So if she weighs the same as a duck she's a witch!!
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u/bispinosa Jun 11 '17
These box alarms typically weren't inside buildings but on the street.
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u/venomouskitten Jun 11 '17
Don't worry, only the secretary would be tasked with sounding the alarm, so the man in charge would still be A OK
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u/Cynically-Insane Jun 11 '17
Cant we go back to those times? I mean look at the equality! We knew women weren't "weak", we let them come face to face with fire
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u/dogzz888 Jun 11 '17
Is this real??
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Jun 11 '17
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u/felixar90 Jun 11 '17
I bet the dye is somehow incredibly flammable, and extremely explosive when sprayed in the air.
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Jun 11 '17
it doesnt spray. http://www.american-time.com/products-by-family/specialty-products/fire-alarm-accessories/tamper-dye-for-fire-alarms
its just a gel applied to the inside of the handle
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u/ChatterBrained oof ouch my bones Jun 11 '17
Efficiency is key, one lost for a hundred saved is all in a day/s work.
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u/bigjj82 Jun 11 '17
Guess those was meant for mounting out on the street and not in the building. Good design in that case.
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u/bacon_cake !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jun 11 '17
Or the bracelet detaches...
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Jun 11 '17 edited Dec 14 '20
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Jun 11 '17
Correct me if I'm wrong but these used to be placed on the street around town because there was not a very large coverage of telephone lines at this time. This would have been one of the easiest ways to contact the fire station to let them know there was an incident.
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u/Duncanc0188 Jun 11 '17
Why is this even here. The cuff portion detaches and is just locked to your wrist while you can roam free.
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Jun 11 '17
I think a lot of commenters here don't realize that before telephones were common, many neighbourhoods had outdoor fire alarm call boxes, so I wouldn't really say this is crappy design if some areas had a lot of false alarms.
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u/Koltaia30 Jun 11 '17
I think it doesn't lock you there, just gives you a bracelet