Loomis was born in Akron to Joseph and Elizabeth Loomis on April 2, 1854. He attended Akron public schools until his father died in 1861. He then lived with a great-uncle at Wadsworth, Ohio, for the next seven years. In 1869, Loomis worked on the Ohio & Erie Canal for a few months. In 1870 he went to work at Merrill's pottery workshop for a year before learning the blacksmith's trade.
Mid life and career
Loomis became a volunteer fireman in Akron's fire department in 1869. In 1870 he became a paid fireman at Steamer No. 1 fire station. He slept at night at the fire station and worked at an outside trade during the day. His first work at the fire department was as a "call man" and would holler as an alarm to get volunteers during a fire. In 1874, Loomis and a city mechanical engineer by the name of James H. Stanford built four fire alarm telegraphsignal boxes at key businesses in Akron. Although the system needed maintenance and improvements, the city would not finance it. Loomis, the other engineer, and the fire chief bought wire from a defunct telegraph line to make these improvements. They wired fifteen miles in Akron to install new alarm boxes which used a telegraph key by the operator before realizing that the operator could not give the correct signal during the hysteria of a new fire. Loomis then developed an alarm box that worked by turning a crank automatically when the door was opened, giving the correct signal. He patented an alarm box which sent this correct signal automatically. Loomis was promoted from minute man fireman to mechanical engineer upon the death of Stanford in January, 1881. He was the city's Chief Engineer from 1890 to 1917. The success of the fire alarm system spawned a similar system for the police department that was installed in 1885. Loomis designed an alarm box for police patrolmen requesting a wagon, additional policemen, or required firemen. It was first developed with a telegraph key before a new alarm box style with a pre-installed telephone replaced it.
Police patrol wagon
In the late 1890s, Loomis started developing a horseless wagon for the police department. In 1899 it became the world's first motorized police patrol wagon. The wagon is sometimes referred to as a "paddy wagon." Visitors came from all over the United States to inspect the vehicle and duplicates soon deployed to Cleveland, Chicago, and New York City. The motorized patrol wagon was an electric vehicle that weighed, with its batteries, almost three tons. It came with a headlight and a bell to alert people it was coming. The police patrol vehicle had three speeds and could go up to sixteen miles per hour. The carriage body of the wagon was built in 1899 by the Collins Buggy Company of Akron to specifications and drawings of Loomis. It had a seating capacity of twelve people and ran with two 4-horsepower electric motors. The storage batteries of the police wagon had to be charged every thirty miles. It was less expensive to maintain than a team of horses to pull a wagon to do the equivalent work. A special enclosure was made to house the police wagon. The electric motor wagon was taken by a mob in the 1900 Akron riot before being damaged and dumped into the Ohio & Erie Canal. It was recovered, repaired, and put into service for an additional seven years. The electric police patrol wagon was completely overhauled in 1913 in preparation for exhibition in the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. It then became a historical display of the International Expo. Later, it was acquired by the Selle Company, who had originally supplied the vehicle's gears, and they dismantled it in 1917 into parts that were used elsewhere.
Family
Loomis married Barbara Grad of Akron on July 10, 1879.
Loomis retired from the Akron fire department in 1910. He died September 19, 1936. He established the "Loomis Award" for fire service valor and heroism. It was initially established by his will and in the first 50 years of its existence only three firefighters received the award.
