Darley helmet sirens

[Daniel]

Here is a photo inside the Darley factory in the early 1940's. The "helmet siren" he is building has six ports, and does not appear to be a Federal Model 2 that was assumed to be inside the siren. This explains why the siren in my video below has a higher pitch than a Model 2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZy4HTxvNhg

[Brendan W]

Very Interesting!

I thought Darleys were rebranded federals, but I guess i'm wrong....

[Mac]

Would that mean that a Darley 5 doesn't have a Federal 5 in it? Or do we have proof of that one?

[almdoc]

I have one of these sirens. There are some differences from the Federal Model 2. Ports is one. There is also no skirt at the frame/stator split and no intake cone on top.

[SirenMadness]

That looks like a Model 3-sized siren. Maybe they shared many of the casting tools but still made their own designs.

[holler]

I have a darley 2t and a darley model 7 and they are both federals.

[500AT]

I just remembered that Whitmore Lake, Michigan used to have one of these sirens. It was located atop the old fire station, which belonged to Northfield Twp. After the fire department received their new pagers, they stopped using it for fire alerting. However, it was used for Tornado Warnings well into the 1990s.

[Notre.Dame1003]

Lakeville, IN has one too. Theirs has a modified/replacement top. To my knowledge it's still used for firecalls and does a noon blast. Not sure about warnings since there are plenty of 2001s covering this area.