I'm curious if anybody collects or is interested in them. I'm hoping to restore this one over the summer. It's a 10hp 3 phase Allertor 125.
I have a Lathrop croaker and a couple of fire truck sirens, wouldn't say I collect them but if I see one I grab it. That one you got I would buy in a second. "looking" for a ship foghorn.
Yeah I would love a foghorn someday myself. I have a decent sized steam whistle mounted on my garage.
Actually it was our alarm clock, used to go off every day at noon and six. Then they built a new fire department and our town didn't want to continue the 60+ year old tradition anymore. I was just a little kid when I watched it being put up.
Our neighbor had one hooked up to compressed air in his shop...he is at least a mile down the road and you hear it really well here...although not lately...got bored with it I guess...
I live next to the FD sometimes when they get back they will hit the horn and back in, if I happen to be outside I will hit the small foghorn I have, the wife just shakes her head and walks away. Also they must sometimes be testing the sirens, so I will test mine too.
I worked with a guy one time who had a hand crank siren, pretty neat set up, he'd walk into the main part of the green end in the mill and start cranking it. Sure had a neat sound to it.
Not sirens but im getting ready to install an onboard air setup and an air horn on my pick up truck.. hehe
Childhood buddy had one in his basement (his Dad's) that was a hand crank surplus or whatever from WWII I believe. It had been less than 20 years since WWII at the time. I do remember that it did take some effort to get the thing rotating from a dead stop (we were small kids) and I also remember just how much his parents didn't appreciate the fact of the wail coming from the basement!
Reminds me of a story, lol. I was coming though town one day in a Belly Dump Truck, it really had a great air horn on it. So, as 2 women i knew were entering the local sporting goods store, i swung wide, and gave the air horn a blast. BOTH of them literally jumped across the threshold of the door at the same time!! lol. Neat thing was, they didn't have a clue who did it, and i've never told them to this day, lol.
