ACA Hurricane 130 and other sirens

[Crazywarriorman]

Those are some awesome pictures!

It's situation is a damn shame though. Too bad the owners of the tower have the attitude they do. Do they not understand the significance of this siren to the warning siren community? I really wonder if anything could be done to either save it, or at least talk them into a test or something.

The siren was put up in the late 60's as a warning siren for the town. And I guess they lost idea of having it up there.

[Captain Dynamite]

For a 41 or 43 year old siren, That Hurricane has held up to the elements pretty well. It makes me wonder if its fibreglass Horn and blower housing have become brittle and fragile after all these years in the Sun. I do not know if this applys to Fibreglass, but I do know it applys to plastics, not the ultravoilet stabilized plastics as much though.

[RowanBlossom]

Oh wow. I have always wanted to see what an older Hurricane looks like. Do you know why the square Hurricanes were taken out of production?

Also, how do you pronounce Allertor? The pronunciation of that particular siren has driven me nuts for some time now.

[carexpertandy]

Also, how do you pronounce Allertor? The pronunciation of that particular siren has driven me nuts for some time now.

I pronounce it Alerter, which I think is correct, others have agreed with me on this.

[weasel2htm]

On the ninth picture down, Is that a Thunderbolt in the background? or just a funky looking street light.

Find where the conduit comes out of the concrete for the Hurricane and look straight up from there.

[carexpertandy]

On the ninth picture down, Is that a Thunderbolt in the background? or just a funky looking street light.

It's just a street light.

[t-bolt82]

a sqaure Hurricane? they really were trying to compete with the Thunderbolt, werent they! i enjoy those as well.

[System 7000]

Oh wow. I have always wanted to see what an older Hurricane looks like. Do you know why the square Hurricanes were taken out of production?

I believe that the original ACA Hurricane 130 (it was never officially called the MkI - that is a 'fan-name') was replaced by the Hurricane 130 MkII sometime around 1973.

I believe that the square horn design was less efficient at projecting sound, which is why it was changed to a round horn for the MkII.

The very first Hurricane 130 sirens supposedly came with a 10/12 port ratio. You can see an illustration of one in this old ACA ad (I won't embed it, as many of us have seen it countless times already).

This was revised into the Hurricane 130 that you see pictured in this thread, and in this manual. Notice the different rotator and the shorter chopper compartment when compared to the 130 pictured in the old ad. This came with an 8/10 port ratio as standard, but was also available in 8/12, 10/12, 8/8, 10/10 and 12/12 configurations upon special request (as far as I know, none were ever ordered with anything other than the standard 8/10 configuration).

The Hurricane 130 MkII switched to the round horn design, as well as bringing numerous other improvements designed to reduce the amount of maintenance required. It featured a different blower, which required less maintenance, was designed to be mounted vertically (rather than horizontally like the original 130 and the Thunderbolt), and was rated at 30HP rather than 25HP. The MkII kept the same 8/10 port ratio as its predecessor, with the other configurations still available on special order. The rotator was also upgraded. See these pictures from civildefensemuseum.com: Horn 1, Horn 2, Horn 3, Compressor & Boxes 1, Compressor & Boxes 2. You can see the MkII manual here.

I apologize if any of this information is incorrect.

Also, how do you pronounce Allertor? The pronunciation of that particular siren has driven me nuts for some time now.

I agree with Andy - I pronounce it Alerter.

Regards,
Jerry.

[RowanBlossom]

I always manage to come up with the wackiest pronunciations for words these days. I've always pronounced Allertor as "Ahlertohr," like a dinosaur. 8) And the Ah is like the word Apple. :I

[Mantis]

^Yeah, it is kind of spelled funny. I also hate saying "Mobil Directo." It's easy to say, but sounds pretty ridiculous.