Sterling History

[500AT]

A) I'd be willing to bet the 90 year old Sterling has either babbit or bronze bearings, with oilcups on the wiring side of the motor. I'd also bet nobody has bothered to oil the machine in over 20 years, and it will eventually scrub the rotor for want of a few drops of oil.

You are correct. However, the fire dept. does go up and put oil into the oil cups every spring. I was amazed when I went up to see the siren for the first time, they actually had an old style oil can sitting on the floor next to the siren, loaded for action should it be needed.



As you can see, at 91 years old, some of the sheet metal is starting to fall off.

[Franz?]

Well, that is the twin to the one I have sitting in my yard, and you're missing the inlet horn on one end, which means the machine is detuned and sucking a lot of extra power.

If you can't duplicate the endpiece, restrict the air going into the left end with a piece of sheetmetal, and the sound will come back to the right pitch.

It's also missing the screnes that wrap the stators.

On the good side, you have a lot more sheetmetal than I do. My neighbors kid swiped my sheetmetal as a retaliatory gesture for my siren screwing up his pool partys. Hey, it sounded better than the crap he called music. They have since moved. They didn't understand the downside of pissing off a man with 3? power and a 5hp siren.


I have a whole US dollar that says it has a Howell RED BAND motor and gibkeys. Motor should say 3450rpm

The motor cover ain't original either, that looks like a piece of stovepipe has been substituted. I'll also bet you the entire unit has a lot of endplay.

If you look closely at the hoods I'll bet they are seamed by rolling a bead onto the top and flanges on the ends, and then tapping the joynt closed. There may or may not be evidence of brazing or solder in the joynts.

[500AT]

The missing inlet horn is actually on the floor in back of the siren, which is out of the photograph. At some point it fell off the siren, after a thick coating of fog froze over the siren, and the former fire chief knocked the ice and horn off with a hammer.

So is this a 5 or 10 horsepower siren? Also, is it an "M" class series from 1917?

[Franz?]

I don't think it's an M, because it lacks the speed govenor. The patent for the original M is available on line. It was a miserable overly complex machine, even for its time.

If you can get the manufacture of the motor we might be able to get closer onthe date. I've found a good gob of spit and rubbing with the side of a piece of poly rope to be best for cleaning the nameplate without damaging it.

If the motor is a Howell RED BAND, it has to be after 1934, because that is Howell's beginning of manufacture.
I'm trying to get information from the company that bought Howell a few years ago, but I ain't holding out a lot of hope.

If you run across that Chief, I strongly recommend aplication of an axe handle to the back of his neck. It's the best device I ever came across for getting their attention.

By the way, be very careful about sticking your fingers thru the ports.

[Rheems1]

Here is our Sterling that we ran at Rheems, no one ever oiled it (it was on a feedmill) but it ran strong for a really long time. As you can see.... it also has added sheetmetal. It was loud as hell and that 16 port sound was absolutely screaming!!

[Modulator Master]

Here in Cambria we have 4 Sterling sirens, there used to be 5 and it was on Southmont's Station.The 4 are Dale-16/16 ports, Nicktown-?/? ports, Patton-?/? ports, and St. Micheal's-?/? ports. The pics go in that order btw.

[CinWx]

Here's the siren I mentioned in my earlier message. I "think" it still has it's original parts, at least on the outside. There probably hasn't been any maintenance performed on this siren in at least 15-20 years.

[Daniel]

Did Sterling ever make horizontal sirens with other than 8, 16, or 8/16 ports? Did all dual-tone Sterlings have an octave ratio?

[Franz?]

The last pic is pretty close to the way it left the factory, other than some genius pried the louvers open thinking it would create more volume.
Those pictures definitely remind me of why I'm more than happy I no longer service sirens.

Some of those housings would sure benefit from a phosphoric acid treatment followed by some RustOleum.

There were 2 sets of stators, and probably more than one machine left the factory with either a pair of 8s or a pair of 16s depending on what was available.

Octives, unless somebody from the Eastman School of Music wandered in and asked about octives I seriously doubt anyone working at Sterling ever talked about it.

[Modulator Master]

Lets not forget the Sterling sirens that go upright.
Like the one in Lower Yoder Twp.