Title

Keeping Police Batteries Charged in a Hilly Square Mile

Description

This article, written by Weehawken Police Chief Edward Kirk, appeared in the November, 1946 issue of The American City magazine, in the ever popular Traffic Control and Facilitation section.
It describes how the problems caused by those new fangled police car radios were solved by the addition of new, stronger batteries. The article includes a photo of the Chief along with a police mechanic in front of a 1946 WPD squad car.
 
From:The American CityNovember, 1946
 
Traffic Control and Facilitation:
Keeping Police Batteries Charged In a Hilly Square Mile
 
New batteries and generators solve Weehawken's police radio problem.
By EDWARD KIRKChief of PoliceWeehawken. N. J.
In 1943 we installed our first radio communication system: FM Motorola equipment in three Ford patrol cars, a detective squad car, an ambulance, and an emergency truck. At that time we had only thirty-five men,and our work had tripled. We found the new communication system most timely.
Following the installation of radio,however, we had a persistent headache, caused not by the radio equipment but by the fact that the car batteries and generators were unable to carry the e1ectrical load. The generator would not, or could not, give the battery sufficient amperage at idling speed. Instead of the prescribed thirty,they were giving five to ten with the motor idling. Weehawken, with a population of 15,000, is only a mile square, with short streets that vary in elevation from 2 to 200 feet above the Hudson River. The town is all uphill and downhill and has no long lazy runs for battery charging. With motors running twenty-four hours a day,the batteries still ran down, a car was out of service every other day, and a generator burned out in two months' time.
Our battery service man told us about William H. Hand, Director ofThe Hand Laboratory, Nyack. N. Y.,and we discussed the problem with Police Commissioner John H. Schuster, who has sparked the department for six years. Mr. Hand put his 65ampere-per-hour heavy-duty storage batteries in our cars and recommended the installation of alternating current generators made by The Leece-Neville Company of Cleveland. These, in combination with rectifiers and voltage regulators of the same make, are designed for 6-volt or 12-volt systems with an output of 60 amperes. These installations solved our problem in August 1946 with tremendous savings in motor wear, oil, and gasoline.
The patrol cars are on duty at school crossings 3V, hours a day. Their motors used to be kept running. With the Hand battery and the Leece-Neville alternator, the car motor is turned off and the radio left on. Even with the motor at slow idle, the alternator feeds the battery 30 amperes when the battery is not fully charged.
To facilitate car repairs, formerly done at a private garage, we employed a mechanic and built him an up-to-date shop at Commissioner Schuster's suggestion. A service for the citizen which the commissioner has sponsored is free transportation in our police ambulance if a resident must be rushed to the hospital. Also. he has installed a modern records system which includes an up-to-date card file of every person living in Weehawken. The department furnishes photostats of discharge papers free of charge to returned veterans.
Commissioner Schuster's philosophy of public service has become the action of the Weehawken Police Department.He said to us: "When anybody comes to the Police Department for information, never say you don't know. If you don't know, find out. Make it your business to sell your services to all citizens in a polite, pleasant, and efficient manner."
 

Subject

WHC423

Date

1946

Type

OT

Identifier

WHC423

Coverage

Weehawken, NJ [40.7663711,-74.02537149999999]

Tag

Government

Police

Transportation

Rights

This digital image may be used for educational or scholarly purposes without restriction. Commercial and other uses of the item are prohibited without prior written permission from the Weehawken Historical Commission.