my Howler

[3t22]

Yes, you read right, I got a Howler the other day.............but not THAT Howler .

I snagged a Benjamen fire alarm Howler model SWP off eBay. It's 110VAC, and in fairly decent shape, even with the original manufacture sticker kind of cracked up and somewhat missing still attached.

I wired it up today for a test and was very pleasantly surprised to find out it works quite well dispite finding the metal contact plate has 2 decent magnet "stamps" in it from 50+ years of use. It sounds just like the Family Feud strike buzzer, same as my re-labled IBM 4031-2B whcih is a twin projector verson (round trumpet like projectors).

Here's a few pics to of it

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y169/w ... ore019.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y169/w ... ore013.jpg

the Howler and 110VAC IBM 4031-2B for comparison
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y169/w ... ore016.jpg

All of my Benjamen vibratory horns, most of which are re-labled. From right to left starting at the back, the Howler, IBM 4031-2B (both 2nd generation horns), un-used 12VAC IBM 4032-1B (3rd generation surface mount), 12VAC IBM 4030-2 (3rd generation twin projector), and 12VAC Faraday Type 2 (1st generation single projector)
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y169/w ... ore018.jpg

I'll post a recording of it later this week.

[Daniel]

My very first alarm device was a Benjamin horn just like yours. I bought it for $3 at a flea market when I was about 9.

[3t22]

My very first alarm device was a Benjamin horn just like yours. I bought it for $3 at a flea market when I was about 9.

cool. I wish I had that luck when I was 9. I had the chance when I was 13 to grab a 1st generation IBM 4030-1 (same as my Faraday Type 2) sitting in a shopping cart full of junk awaiting a trip to the dumpster when the old Portland (CT) Middle School (now brownstone intermediate school) was renovated. Unfortunately the thought of explaining why I had it to my mom who would of made me get rid of it, plus my fear of their sound at the time kept me from grabbing it. Weird thing is, I have 2 of them now, the one seen in the pics and a 110VAC horn in my storage bin.

[Daniel]

A couple of years ago I bought a 24 VAC horn like those that my elementary school used to call us in from recess (horns outside, bells inside -- another common find in old Oregon schools). I think it is a Simplex horn, and it looks like your Benjamin except the base tapers forward toward the horn and does not unscrew. The last time I drove by there, the horns were still on the outside walls and the Federal/Sterling/IBM Model A sirens were still visible through the hallway windows. There are three more items that I would like to harvest from that school: their 1950's-era Executone intercom system, their late-70's Simplex Master Time System, and one of those dark green, wedge-shaped, glass exit lights that hung over the hall doors.