I recently acquired a very old (but fully functional) Edwards panel, dated 1956!
This is an Edwards 1300-1: a very simple fire alarm panel. The initiating devices (pull stations) and notification appliances (horns or bells) basically wire together like a hardwired system. However, the panel does supervise the circuit, and there’s a supervisory relay and trouble bell terminals. The alarm relay is non-latching, so coded pulls do work on this system!
The wiring diagram is posted on the back of the door. Looks like it supports 3/6/12 VAC horns (tested with a 12 VAC 4040) and bells for notification. It also lists 270 and 271 SPO pull station as supported initiating devices. I do have an old 270 SPO that matches with this panel.
I got this panel and a 340-T trouble bell for about $100. Sadly, the trouble bell doesn’t work, but it looks fine and is a nice display piece (it goes with the 1300). It appears this panel was hooked up to some newer panel via relays, which sounds like an interesting retrofit.
With documentation and the board dated 1956, this panel is close to 70 years old. Like my 4246-1, these older panels were definitely built to last. This is now my oldest fire alarm panel, beating my 4246-1 by over a decade. A very awesome find and a welcome addition to my collection.
Wiring diagram below…
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Excellent find! Planning on giving it a thorough test to make sure everything works on it? (if you haven’t already & with as little features as it has)
Are you also planning on trying to diagnose & fix the trouble bell as well?
The panel works flawlessly. As for the bell, I found the striker mechanism is missing. Not sure what happened there. The internal circuitry all looks fine, so that’s probably the issue.
Awesome!
Huh, that’s odd. Best of luck if you ever try to find one for it!
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Beautiful Edwards panel! US made too I see. Around that time, Edwards would’ve been 6 years into Canada, and up there the more popular panel for schools and such was the 1221T.
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You should share this with Glenn James (Old School Fire Alarms)!
can automatic heat sensors work on this system too, even if those are not listed?
I think the simple mechanical heat detectors might work on these. Some of these systems had a heat detector or two, but most of these systems used pull stations only.
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I think I’d fall down a deeper rabbit hole looking at all those older Edwards panels! There seems to be a lot of older Edwards panels that don’t have lots of coverage on social media. My oldest panel after the 1300-1 is a 1212b from the late 80s.
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Oh I feel that! I know there is a ton of these old systems, and so many random devices. My oldest is an Edwards Drop Flag system, and I have a bunch of smaller red Edward panels from the late 60s.
I’ve seen the drop flag system online before (I think it was an annunciator). That’s a part of the charm with older panels, lots of moving parts; it’s very interesting to see. But yeah, I can’t even count how many obscure/old Edwards panels are out there. Especially watching Canadian fire alarm channels, I always learn of another panel I’ve never heard of.
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