Federal Super X

[Der Matze]

Hello
Im new to this forum, so first a few words about me. My name is Matthias, im 23 years old and i live in Hildesheim, Germany. I collect sirens since about 4 years.

Now i got my first american siren, a Federal Sign an Signal, Model Super X.
Now i hope to get some more infomation about this siren here.
Can anybody tell me when this siren was build?
I wonder where my siren was in use, because of the colour. First it was red, after that it has been painted military-green.
I suggest some kind of fire-engine, because of the red colour?
On the type-plate there is a G behind the name, i suggest it stands for the grill-type without a light in the front?





The last picture shows the SuperX in comparison to an Elektror FLS1a. The Elektror seems smaller, although its rotator is bigger.

So if anybody can answer my questions or give me any addtitional info about this type of siren it woulf be very nice.

Greetings from Germany
Matthias

[holler]

That's definitely a military application, the 24 volt rating is a dead giveaway.

[Jim Z]

Can anybody tell me when this siren was build?

not exactly, but it had to have been sometime between the early 1930's (when the name changed to "Federal Sign and Signal") and the mid-1960s, when we changed from postal zones ("Chicago 19") to ZIP codes.

Doesn't really narrow it down all that much, sorry.

[Der Matze]

Thank you for your answers.
Does only military trucks have 24 Volt ? Here in Germany all big trucks have 24 Volt, so i thought it could also be from a fire-engine.
Does the military use red as color for their vehicles?

At least i now know it was manufactured between '30 and '60, better than nothing.

[Mac]

I've got a similar one on my M37, but instead of grills on the end it has a ring and rear gills on the bottom....... but I've seen one like this on an M43 before if that helps you at all?...

I dont know much about sirens yet, but I do know a lot about military vehicles from the time period and I'd be willing to bet the army bought it from federal just as new siren (I'm sure they just painted them red at the factory?) and then put some O.D. on it to match the truck...



Now I'm not sure if I'm going to get jumped on for this guess- but I'm going to say you can narrow your time period down from '30-60s......and narrow it all the way down to 1944 to 1957. I say this based on the specific color of paint on the siren (Note- doesnt mean I'm saying thats when it was made, simply used in the army)....

The paint on your siren reflects a little too much light and is too green to be your classic WWII lusterless O.D., is definitely not dark enough to be USMC \ semi-gloss forest green which is what we used after 1957, but it does appear to match the "WWII semi-gloss" which they used through korea from the end of WWII.

[coop866]

Heres a drawing for the patent:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=EsRiAA ... 22&f=false

[Der Matze]

Thank you very much for your answers!

[Travis]

Just a random thought, but the model G is the hand-powered version of the model A. Obviously, these both share the noise-making parts of the A, so I think it would be safe to assume that the XG uses the A rotor/stator.

[JasonC]

Just a random thought, but the model G is the hand-powered version of the model A. Obviously, these both share the noise-making parts of the A, so I think it would be safe to assume that the XG uses the A rotor/stator.

'


If your talking about the WWII Federal hand cranked model G, that siren has a 13 port rotor (IIRC) and slightly bigger than a model A rotor (which has 6 ports.

Mid-sized vehicular sirens like these used rotors about the size of a model L.

[Travis]

Oh booty, you are right. I have no idea where I came up with that, though I could have sworn the A and G were the same. I think it was because FS used to have the same recording for the sound bite on their website.