The Siren Board

Purring Cat wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 26, 2019 11:35 am

There used to be a Prototype of the Allertor in the 1950s called the Mobil Directo. Atlanta, Georgia and Evansville, Indiana Had Mobil Directos back in the Cold War as Air Raid Sirens for Nuclear Attacks.

The Mobil Directo was made in the 1940s and was not a prototype. It was the original design made by the company that formed into ACA. When the ACA name was taken, the Mobil Directo was 're-designed' into the Allertor.

It came gas or mechanical powered, right?

Purring Cat wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 27, 2019 12:44 am

It came gas or mechanical powered, right?

Yes, there was indeed gasoline-powered MDs, most of them were either scrapped, converted to either propane or electricity or plain abandoned (Culver City, CA has one missing its upper horn, there is also an abandoned one in San Bernardino).

Darley Champion wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 27, 2019 11:16 am

Purring Cat wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 27, 2019 12:44 am

It came gas or mechanical powered, right?

Yes, there was indeed gasoline-powered MDs, most of them were either scrapped, converted to either propane or electricity or plain abandoned (Culver City, CA has one missing its upper horn, there is also an abandoned one in San Bernardino).

Most Mobil-Directos have been either converted to or manufactured to be powered by electricity (I don't think any ran on propane).

The gasoline-powered MDs were produced from around 1942 to 1953. They were powered by a 25HP Wisconsin Air-Cooled engine (Might be a VH4D, unsure though). All gasoline models came with an 8-port stator and rotor.

The electric-powered MDs were produced from 1953 and up until the mid-1960s when Alerting Communicators of America was founded and the Allertor was first made. They were powered by a 10HP 3-phase electric motor (I think they're Westinghouse motors). Most electric models came with a 10/12-port stator and rotor but there are some examples of electric models having an 8-port stator and rotor, these being former gasoline models which were converted to be powered by electric motors.

The Electric MD Used Louis Allis 3 Phase motors made in Milwaukee WI I go past the old Louis Allis plant everyday going to work

Sifed1 wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 24, 2019 6:35 pm

Phone Goat wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 24, 2019 5:54 pm

Purring Cat wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 23, 2019 9:29 pm

What happened to Cincinnati's old Allertor?

I didn't know they had one? I know Batavia (Clermont county, a few miles from Cincinnati) has an Allertor that doesn't like to work, maybe they have it?

There did used to be one in the Cincinnati suburb of Springdale, Ohio, but that one has been gone for years. As far as the operational status of the Batavia Allertor, I'm not sure. Awhile back Christian Bricking (4J25) and his friends went to see the Batavia Allertor test, but I think he told me it failed to work.

This is a bump, but as of August 2019, Batvoa’s Allertor has (finally) been fixed and is working once again. Not sure what went wrong with it but I heard it was either the radio or the siren controls went bad and it took over a year for them to fix it. But she’s up and running again IIRC