Franz?
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Fri Apr 18, 2008 5:12 pm

Jason if you look at the original patent drawings on Google they show the true M siren with govenor & brake.
The govenor hides inside one of the intake horns, so it's pretty unlikely you'll notice it driving by. The true M also has a brake as it left the factory. Brakes operated by a solonoid were an option on the H model although very few were sold with a brake.

I have an early H with the Howell Red Band motor and it has neither brake or govenor.

Unfortunately, between most of Sterlings business records going under the wrecking ball in the mid 60s, and Howell being sold at least twice, it is impossible to determine when anything early was built.

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Daniel
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Sat Apr 19, 2008 1:56 am

So basically, 90% of the single and dual-tone Sterling sirens that we see are a Model H, not a Model M? Is this true of their latest horizontal sirens before they went to the all-vertical format?
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Franz?
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Sat Apr 19, 2008 3:45 am

The percentage thing is almost impossible to state for a few reasons.

As far as I'm concerned Sterling Siren Fire Alarm in Rochester, NY NEVER made a vertical siren other than fractional horsepower poletoppers that were used as fill in sirens.

The horizontals made in 5, 7? and 10 hp were the END OF THE LINE as far as Sterling Siren Fire Alarm manufacturing! Sterling Siren Fire Alarm in Rochester NEVER made or sold a large vertical, primarily because of bearing technology. The reality is I don't believe Sterling Siren Fire Alarm in Rochester made many single rotor sirens either. I never came across one in over 45 years. I'd sure like to get up close to a genuine Rochester made single ended machine because I have a very strong hunch it was built by sawing one of the protruding shafts from a stock motor.

In fact, let me take it a step farther. From 1960 on I never saw a machine larger than 5hp built in Rochester.

Another FACT, the LAST new 5hp model H was built at Manitou Rd from the remaining parts in stock for Fairport FD House 2 around 1970. It is the strangest H model you'll ever see because it was custom built to overcome the archetect's misguided sense of what a siren cupula should be. That machine has 2 gigantc tin funnels carrying the sound from the clipper, as opposed to the pair of standard hoods. It also is the strangest sounding H model Sterling you'll ever hear due to the sound dispersion from the funnels. I helped build that machine, I wound it up after reversing the wires so it ran in the right direction, and I spent hours listening to Fire Comissioners about the strange sound.

No more Sterlings were built in Rochester after that. I own the sole remaining new GE motor that was left after the Fairport job, and nobody has sought to buy it since 1981 when I took posession.

Any vertical made by Sentry is NOT a Sterling in my book. Fact is I never heard of Sentry or their claim to be manufacturing Sterling Sirens until just a couple years ago. I've also heard Sentry is making claims they have all the casting patterns and spinning fixtures for Sterling sirens, and that they bought them in 72. I still wonder how they accomplished this given that most of those pieces of wood went through a woodstove on Manitou Rd in the early 70s. The patterns for the big siren rotors and clippers were busted up and burned.

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JasonC
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Sat Apr 19, 2008 4:22 am

Scott Yarberry (or was it Bill?) at Sentry said "the last Sterling siren sold was model M-10 sold in 1981" (he attached a picture as well). Does this conflict with anything you are familiar with?

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Daniel
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Sat Apr 19, 2008 5:11 am

Do you know anything about these two models? I know that the red one is a Sterling, but I'm not sure about the first one. The silver one is in Roseburg, Oregon, and the red one was in Warrenton, Oregon, and was removed several years ago. I thought that the red one was an M-10, and it is the largest Sterling I've ever seen.

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Franz?
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Sat Apr 19, 2008 5:41 am

JasonC wrote:Scott Yarberry (or was it Bill?) at Sentry said "the last Sterling siren sold was model M-10 sold in 1981" (he attached a picture as well). Does this conflict with anything you are familiar with?
1, I never heard of Scott Yarberry prior to a couple years ago on the internet.

2, Sterling Siren Fire Alarm in Rochester was owned by Bill Corey. The company effectively went out of business by a process of slow death in the 60s, after Civil Defense orders ended. Civil Defense kept the company alive through the 50s and early 60s. I have no recollection of any 7? or 10 hp machines being made in Rochester in the 1960 or after timeframe. There just wasn't any market for anything bigger than 5hp.

3, Scott Yarbury says he bought Sterling in 1972 on his website. I have no recollection of that happening, and I am absolutely certain Sterling in Rochester was still operating after 1972. Mr Yarberry is very vague on his site as to how he acquired Sterling Siren Fire Alarm. Since Bill Corey is dead, and most of the company's records went in a dumpster in 1981, I have no way of verifying anything Scott Yarbury says.

I don't know what Mr Yarbury bought, or who he bought it from, but I do know he didn't buy or at least take delivery of the wood patterns, because they were busted up and burned for heat in Bill Corey's kid's snowmobile shop.

4, I can and will say with absolute certainty that the last Sterling Siren produced in Rochester by Sterling Siren Fire Alarm was built at 1619 Manitou Road, and installed at Fairport's then new House 2. I have definite memory of that machine, and other than the dollars I made from that machine, none of those memorys are happy.
At that point in time the company was virtually dormant. The inventory consisted of 1 used H model which I now own, and one 5hp GE double shaft replacement motor which I also now own. There were also a handfull of FHP sirens in stock, and a pile of FHP siren parts, along with shelves of parts for 6 and 12 volt sirens, and a handfull of hand cranked alarm bells, one of which now hangs on my dining room wall.

5, I do NOT consider machines built anyplace other than Rochester NY to be genuine Sterling sirens.

Franz?
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Sat Apr 19, 2008 5:55 am

Daniel wrote:Do you know anything about these two models? I know that the red one is a Sterling, but I'm not sure about the first one. The silver one is in Roseburg, Oregon, and the red one was in Warrenton, Oregon, and was removed several years ago. I thought that the red one was an M-10, and it is the largest Sterling I've ever seen.

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The red machine sitting on the palet is definitely a Sterling, the base casting and the hoods confirm it. The "M-10" designation does not match the paperwork I have. The large horizontals were all designated the same, and were offered in 5hp, 7?hp and 10hp in either single or 3?.

Only 5hp machines were offered in single head configuration.

About the best way I've come up with to determine aproximate time of manufacture of a Sterling machine is how the hoods and intakes are joined. The last machines made, with the exception of Fairport, employed spot welded sheetmetal. Earlier machines employed mechanicle joynts similar to a Pittsburgh lock, and either solder or brazing.

The Sterling sitting on the palet looks like it has 5 wires coming from the housing. That would indicate a 3? machine with an electric brake. It was probably made in Rochester in the 1950s.

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Sat Apr 19, 2008 1:56 pm

Franz, what a wealth of wonderful information you are!

How sad the records were destroyed.
Did Corey's son destroy them?
What are these wood patterns to which you refer?
Thank you.

Franz?
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Sat Apr 19, 2008 4:32 pm

Just an old fart with a good memory Robert. My wiff referrs to it as a veritable cornucopia of useless and quasiuseless information, until the moment she needs a bit of it. Fortunately, I was able to scrap my encyclopedia when she moved in, she knows everything.

I suppose I ought to do a thumbnail history of the REAL company for you young guys. Way too much history turns to speculation when it doesn't get written down by us old guys. It's become one of my pet peeves since I've watched a bunch of pissant punks getting paid to deliver presentations at the local Historical Society. I do enjoy jackin the basturds up during the question period though. Nothin like exposin a know it all reporter who makes it up and forgets a lot of old documents exist, or the chump from the Trolley Museum who doesn't know the books exist and where they are.

I figure I can set aside my book on the Shipyard in Rochester long enough to do a thumbnail on Sterling Siren Fire Alarm, a product of the Great Depression in Rochester, NY. Of course I'll have to charge all you guys for reading it, and yall best bring free coffee for me.
Last edited by Franz? on Sun Nov 23, 2008 8:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

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CTsirenhunter
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Sat Apr 19, 2008 5:34 pm

Given your knowledge, I would like to ask a somewhat off-topic Sterling question. This is a VFD siren in Pine Meadow, CT, a part of the town of New Hartford. We presume it's a Sterling...can you shed any light on it?
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