User avatar
kanazo
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 182
Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2007 5:42 am
Location: Burnaby, BC

Thu Aug 28, 2008 5:58 pm

The picture posted is a different one, and I do not know much detail about it other than that is was installed in 1951 and stopped in 1989, and it is controlled by automatic timing mechanism rather than played by a person as the one on Marumitsu. Apparently these sirens were popular during that period of time.
Greater Vancouver, 0 active sirens...

User avatar
kanazo
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 182
Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2007 5:42 am
Location: Burnaby, BC

Thu Aug 28, 2008 6:01 pm

Robert Gift wrote:Fascinating!
Sounds like pipe organ diapason pipes!

How do they abruptly start and stop the sounds from the sirens?
Does the bottom picture reveal cylindrical dampers which rotate to align with stator port openings?
How many pitches? 13 wires to rollerdrum contacts means 13 pitches?
Thank you.
Actually the sirens had been mistaken as organ pipes.
Greater Vancouver, 0 active sirens...

User avatar
John in MA
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 205
Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2008 3:43 am
Location: MA, USA

Thu Aug 28, 2008 6:22 pm

acoustics101 wrote:You'll hear the raw sounds of several flue pipes I designed at
http://rjweisen.50megs.com/fluepipe1_001.htm on pages 2 and 6. The Gamba pipe on page 6 with its harmonic bridge sounds fairly close. Look at it in Windows Media Player under the visualization, "Ocean Mist". This visualization is a poor man's FFT analyzer. You can see harmonics as high as 17 or 18.
Those sound samples aren't downloading for me.

The siren does sound more like an imitative string like a viol di gamba than a pure gamba, but I still get a strong reedy impression like a trumpet stop. Maybe a good tuba mirabilis.

User avatar
acoustics101
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 341
Joined: Fri Feb 22, 2008 6:17 pm
Location: Paducah, KY
Contact: Website

Tue Sep 02, 2008 3:54 pm

Send me a private message and I'll send you the sound file.

John in MA wrote:Those sound samples aren't downloading for me.

The siren does sound more like an imitative string like a viol di gamba than a pure gamba, but I still get a strong reedy impression like a trumpet stop. Maybe a good tuba mirabilis.
The most overlooked opportunities are in the learning of and improvement in old technologies.

Richard Weisenberger

User avatar
Daniel
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 4086
Joined: Sat Jun 03, 2006 3:37 am
Location: Beautiful eastern Oregon

Tue Sep 02, 2008 8:17 pm

It is hard to place the pipe type, since one gamba will sound different from another, but it reminds me of a beefier krumet or cromorne rank, perhaps something from a high pressure orchestral theatre organ.
Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi.

User avatar
acoustics101
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 341
Joined: Fri Feb 22, 2008 6:17 pm
Location: Paducah, KY
Contact: Website

Tue Sep 02, 2008 9:01 pm

Did you get it off of my website at http://rjweisen.50megs.com/fluepipe1_006.htm ? If so, the pipe I designed measures .75" in diameter and is 12.5" in length from the languid to the top. Both the cutup height and the diameter of the harmonic bridge is .375". The pipe is voiced on 20" water column pressure (about 3/4 PSI) and produces a peak SPL of around 114 dB at 1 meter (about as loud as a stock car horn). It does sound rather "reedlike".

Daniel wrote:It is hard to place the pipe type, since one gamba will sound different from another, but it reminds me of a beefier krumet or cromorne rank, perhaps something from a high pressure orchestral theatre organ.
The most overlooked opportunities are in the learning of and improvement in old technologies.

Richard Weisenberger

iamdave
 
Posts: 27
Joined: Fri Aug 08, 2008 6:14 pm

Wed Sep 03, 2008 12:09 am

this siren sounds amazing. i love the music it plays as well. this siren must be one of a kind. even with attempts to repair it. i wonder what broke or how it broke. it seems that its a rare part or parts if the siren has been silent since '87. i wonder if someone could fabricate new parts to replace the broken parts?

Robert Gift
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 2857
Joined: Sat Jun 03, 2006 2:22 am
Location: Denver, CO

Sat Sep 06, 2008 2:21 pm

acoustics101 wrote:Did you get it off of my website at http://rjweisen.50megs.com/fluepipe1_006.htm ? If so, the pipe I designed measures .75" in diameter and is 12.5" in length from the languid to the top. Both the cutup height and the diameter of the harmonic bridge is .375". The pipe is voiced on 20" water column pressure (about 3/4 PSI) and produces a peak SPL of around 114 dB at 1 meter (about as loud as a stock car horn). It does sound rather "reedlike"...
Funny. I was listing pipe organ wind pressures in psi and forgot the conversion I had calculated years ago.
1 psi - 26.6 inches H2O?
Also labeled pipe lengths in meters.

User avatar
Daniel
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 4086
Joined: Sat Jun 03, 2006 3:37 am
Location: Beautiful eastern Oregon

Sat Sep 06, 2008 2:58 pm

acoustics101 wrote:Did you get it off of my website at http://rjweisen.50megs.com/fluepipe1_006.htm ? If so, the pipe I designed measures .75" in diameter and is 12.5" in length from the languid to the top. Both the cutup height and the diameter of the harmonic bridge is .375". The pipe is voiced on 20" water column pressure (about 3/4 PSI) and produces a peak SPL of around 114 dB at 1 meter (about as loud as a stock car horn). It does sound rather "reedlike".
No, just going from organs I've played in the past. What the pitch most reminds me of is a lesser reed pipe on a classic French organ.

The size of these siren rotors are on the same scale as any warning siren, but there aren't too many of them. Does the system maintain a constant rotor speed, or can it be changed to reach different pitches? Obviously this would not allow for polyphonic playing unless rotors had individual motors, but this department store siren appears to have at least two motors.

The last photo shows a matrix of newer-looking sirens. Is this a newer version? Is it inside the steel box?
Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi.

User avatar
acoustics101
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 341
Joined: Fri Feb 22, 2008 6:17 pm
Location: Paducah, KY
Contact: Website

Mon Sep 08, 2008 6:43 pm

It's actually around 28"/PSI.
http://www.onlineconversion.com/pressure.htm

Robert Gift wrote: Funny. I was listing pipe organ wind pressures in psi and forgot the conversion I had calculated years ago.
1 psi - 26.6 inches H2O?
Also labeled pipe lengths in meters.
The most overlooked opportunities are in the learning of and improvement in old technologies.

Richard Weisenberger

Return to “Main Outdoor Warning Sirens Board”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot], Google [Bot] and 61 guests