text: considering first fig1 it is shown that locator signal flashers ( i . e ., the led ) may be located in one or more places visible from outside a structure and preferably visible from a street or road nearest to where the structure is located . illustrative non - limiting examples are shown at the following locations : mounted inside a window , as at 20 ; under the eaves , as at 22 ; in a lighted address display unit or doorbell site , as at 24 ; in an exterior light on or around the structure , as at 26 ; and on the mailbox or post supporting the mailbox , as at 28 . it is clear that such signal flashers can be placed at various or multiple locations , usually , but not limited to , outside a structure . previous inventors have been ingenious in locating appropriate places to locate such signal flashers . throughout this disclosure , where the word structure is used , it should be interpreted as a single - or multiple - unit dwelling , including a single - family home , a multiple - family home , a single apartment or apartment building , or a business location , including an individual office or office suite , an office building , a retail establishment , a factory , a warehouse , or even a single , free - standing telephone booth , any of which has an installed telephone . in short , a structure , as used herein , is anything that comprises a telephone connected to a fixed location . fig1 also illustrates the telephone service entrance box 32 with the service line from the telephone company 34 , through which the system of this invention draws its power and receives its activating signal , as well as through which service line is carried the variable voltage representing telephone conversations and the ringer signal . each telephone circuit in the incoming line comprises a cable pair , referred to in the trade as the &# 34 ; tip &# 34 ; and the &# 34 ; ring .&# 34 ; the telephone company imposes on this cable pair a constant dc ( direct current ) voltage , usually 48 volts , with the ring being at ground potential and the tip being at + 48 v . when a call is received , then upon this dc voltage is imposed a 90 - volt ac ( alternating current ) ringer signal that causes the ringer in the telephone set to &# 34 ; ring .&# 34 ; the ac ringer signal is stopped when the telephone is answered . the telephone conversation and any other sound to be transmitted appears on this circuit as a modulated signal of widely varying frequency imposed upon the dc voltage present in the circuit . it is to be noted that for standard telephones , no electrical energy not provided over the cable pair is needed for any function of the telephone . in structures where special equipment is provided , either by the consumer or by the telephone company , that equipment may require power from electric service lines . the telephone company &# 39 ; s portion of the basic system , however , is powered by the telephone company over the cable pair for each circuit . it is seen that the power required for the functions of telephone service to a structure or office is independent of other power sources . in many emergencies , the electric service to the structure may be interrupted while the telephone service remains uninterrupted , thus , an emergency signaling system that relies totally upon power received through the telephone cable pair may be considered extremely reliable . although the use of the telephone cable pair as the total source of power is included in the best mode of practicing this invention , the use of standard household electric service is not totally without merit and should be considered a viable option in the practice of this invention . although an electrochemical cell or battery may be considered as a reliable power source for electronic safety equipment , it is sadly evidenced by investigations of household fires that individuals are generally lax in replacing batteries in safety equipment . many homes with smoke detector alarms have non - working batteries in them . only rechargeable batteries that are automatically kept at maximum charge should be considered for advanced electronic safety equipment . rechargeable batteries kept fully charged by power delivered over the telephone cable pair should be the most reliable source of power for the present invention , so that option is here presented . in the best mode , therefore , the circuitry and the control for the present invention is to be placed near or within the telephone service entry box from which it is to be powered by the telephone company &# 39 ; s incoming cable pair . the incoming cable pair usually has lightning arresters and overload protection associated therewith . it is assumed that the apparatus of the present invention would connect to the protected side of such protective equipment , but this assumption should not be considered a limitation on the present invention . as an alternative , the apparatus of the present invention could also be provided as a portable or semi - portable unit installed indoors on a telephone line by means of a standard telephone jack plugged into a standard telephone receptacle . this does not preclude its use in any hard - wired telephone system where modular jacks and receptacles are not used and where the wires must be manually attached to terminals in a telephone junction box . such a portable unit must include a signal light that can be placed in or near a window to provide visibility from the outside , preferably from the street . fig2 presents a block diagram of apparatus that would meet the needs of this invention . the figure includes connection to the tip terminal of a telephone cable pair , from which the apparatus of this invention receives its power . each block in the diagram has a connection ( not shown ) to the ring , or ground terminal of the telephone cable pair . the charger reduces the voltage supplied at the tip and provides a suitable voltage to the rechargeable battery , which is kept fully charged by this voltage . in the best mode , the charger operates only while the telephone is in the on - hook condition ( i . e ., the telephone is not in use ). this control is effected by the workings of the off hook detect and the power up and lock . when the telephone is off the hook ( i . e ., in use ) then the battery is no longer connected to the charger , and the battery is instead connected to the + 5 volt regulator that delivers system power to the four remaining elements shown in the figure , the tone decoder , the pulse stretch , the latch , and the flasher . the tone decoder senses the presence on the telephone circuit of the tone or tones to which it is tuned and , upon sensing the appropriate tone , passes a signal to the pulse stretch . the pulse stretch then passes a signal to the latch , which connects the flasher to the system power to enable it to begin flashing . the purpose of the pulse stretch is to prevent the latch from being exposed to more than one signal in rapid sequence from the tone decoder . the pulse stretch is also called a &# 34 ; debouncing circuit &# 34 ;. together , the pulse stretch and the latch may be considered a &# 34 ; latch means &# 34 ;. the latch also engages the locking portion of the power up and lock , thereby keeping the battery connected to the + 5 volt regulator to maintain system power and the signal flasher operating , even if the off hook detect senses that the phone has been hung - up or disconnected . the signal flasher may be considered a secondary circuit , since it is substantially a separate circuit that operates under the control of the output of the other elements . more than one such secondary circuits may be present to provide more than one flasher , at different locations about the structure , all controlled by the output of one set of the other elements . a specific circuit that has been tested and works adequately to meet the needs of this invention is illustrated in standard electronic schematic form in fig3 . it will be seen that each of the blocks illustrated in fig2 is expanded upon in fig3 . the regulator , shown in fig3 delivers at the terminal labeled &# 34 ; vcc &# 34 ;, the + 5 volt system power that feeds the various other terminals labeled &# 34 ; vcc &# 34 ; on the tone decoder , the pulse stretch , the latch , and the flasher . the flasher selected for the working model that has been constructed is a high - intensity led with on - board circuitry that causes it to flash at a nominal rate of two cycles per second when connected to a constant dc voltage as illustrated in the circuit diagram . other led devices may require including a circuit element to produce a pulsed voltage to operate . were a manual reset button installed in the circuit shown in fig3 it would be effective if placed in a location that would momentarily ground the cl contact ( i . e ., terminal 1 ) of the latch . a normally - open push button switch not unlike a doorbell button would suffice . this reset button would not activate the flasher . having the apparatus of this invention in operation allows the use of the apparatus in a method not previously available to the &# 34 ; 9 - 1 - 1 &# 34 ; emergency system or to any other telephone - based emergency system . for the first time , the activating of and emergency flasher to identify the specific site of an emergency may be activated based upon the judgement of the person who dispatches the emergency team to the site . this method will create less confusion than other telephone - based emergency locator systems that have heretofore been proposed . thus , the method illustrated in fig4 is an integral part of this disclosure . the steps in this method are illustrated in a time sequence from the top of the figure to the bottom and are described in terms of calling a &# 34 ; 9 - 1 - 1 &# 34 ; emergency system . naturally , the method would work in the same manner if a non -&# 34 ; 9 - 1 - 1 &# 34 ; emergency system were called , so long as the dispatcher had equipment to generate the needed triggering code or code combination . the method is initiated by an occupant of a structure who calls to report an emergency . dispatchers working on &# 34 ; 9 - 1 - 1 &# 34 ; systems are trained to evaluate emergency calls to determine the nature of the emergency so the proper emergency personnel can be dispatched . in many cases no emergency personnel are necessary , so none are dispatched . a judgement is made by the &# 34 ; 9 - 1 - 1 &# 34 ; dispatcher as step two of this method . in step three , the dispatcher sends emergency personnel to the caller &# 39 ; s address . step four may be simultaneous with step three in that the dispatcher causes a tone or tones over the telephone line to trigger the emergency locator system that is attached to the caller &# 39 ; s phone line . other calls reporting the same emergency would likely be recognized by the &# 34 ; 9 - 1 - 1 &# 34 ; dispatcher , so additional emergency locators in the neighborhood of the original caller would not be activated . this is at the discretion of the &# 34 ; 9 - 1 - 1 &# 34 ; dispatcher , however , and not at the discretion of the caller . in most cases , the &# 34 ; 9 - 1 - 1 &# 34 ; dispatcher stays on the line to be the contact person linking the emergency site to the sources of emergency aid . often the dispatcher advises the caller of steps to take to ameliorate the emergency before the emergency personnel arrive . meanwhile , the emergency personnel are travelling to the emergency locale and , seeing the emergency signal flasher , know exactly where the emergency is located . in some cases , of course , the signal flasher may be at the location not of the emergency , but of a person who knows where the emergency is . common practice is for the emergency personnel to advise the &# 34 ; 9 - 1 - 1 &# 34 ; dispatcher of their arrival by picking up the telephone and talking to the dispatcher . the dispatcher may have gained from the caller additional information that was not transmitted to the emergency response personnel by radio . the dispatcher would deactivate the daril by sending another tone or tones over the telephone line . alternatively , for cases in which telephone contact has not been maintained , the emergency personnel on the scene could deactivate the daril by means of a hand - held tone generator capable of putting the required tone on the telephone line , thereby resetting the daril locally . such a portable tone generator gives the emergency personnel the ability to re - initiate the daril signal to aid back - up personnel to locate the emergency , should they be needed . in another embodiment , a reset button may be present in the circuit to allow manual resetting of the daril system . no button would be provided to re - initiate the daril signal , however . in yet another scenario , the reset could be accomplished remotely during a follow - up call to the emergency site by the dispatcher or by other follow - up personnel who might also collect data regarding timeliness and quality of service delivered by the emergency system . thus , it can be seen that this method , while including several steps already in current use , includes a new step heretofore not available -- that of the dispatcher triggering an emergency locator system . this step is made possible by the apparatus of this invention . the foregoing is considered as only illustrative of the principles of the invention . further , since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art , it is not desired to limit the invention to he exact construction and operation shown and described . accordingly , all suitable modifications and equivalents that may be resorted to should be considered as falling within the scope of the invention if they fall within the attached claims .