The Siren Board

Here are some classic sirens:

Kansas City, Kansas 1943:



San Francisco, Calif. gasoline powered Vint Siren 1941:



Boston Army Base 1952:



Unknown location, 1957:



Chrysler Air Raid Siren 1942:



Munich, Germany 1960:



San Francisco, Calif 1941:



New York City 1941:



Washington State University 1942:



San Francisco, Calif 1941 Vint Siren 1:



San Francisco, Calif 1941 Vint Siren 2:



San Francisco, Calif 1941 Vint Siren 3:

That 2nd siren is really interesting... Seems like they'd need an outer cone.

#4 is actually a listening device, probably a way to detect aircraft before radar.

Id really like to see more pictures of the gas siren and conical rotor sirens

The photo of the siren from Munich, Germany is a first generation Sonnenburg Pintsch-Bamag.

The conical rotor sirens are from the E.D. Bullard Co. of San Francisco. The gasoline powered one was an attempt to build one loud enough to meet government specifications. It failed, and the Chrysler was born from the attempt. The second-to-last photo shows a manufacturer name on the rotor cover, unfortunately obscured by the watermark, but the letters of Bullard are partially visible.

Daniel wrote:The conical rotor sirens are from the E.D. Bullard Co. of San Francisco. The gasoline powered one was an attempt to build one loud enough to meet government specifications. It failed, and the Chrysler was born from the attempt. The second-to-last photo shows a manufacturer name on the rotor cover, unfortunately obscured by the watermark, but the letters of Bullard are partially visible.

So this confirms the famous Pearl Harbor siren aswell as the Tucson And LA conical sirens?

Apparently so. They also had vertical models. I'm not sure what advantage a conical rotor has, except perhaps to control the clearance better. The ones in these photos are coding sirens - notice the solenoid at the base. Low pitched six-port sirens seemed to be popular in the 1930's, as the nearby Hedberg company also built some, but Bullard also had twelve-port sirens. I know of a twelve-port Bullard still mounted to the roof of a fire station north of Redding, California. There was one in Chilcoot, California (near Reno, NV) which was removed several years ago. If the West Coast had had the population of the East Coast back in the day, perhaps there would be more Bullards, Hedbergs, and Heaths around like there are HOR sirens.

That Model 2 one is interesting. It seems like they wanted a loud siren but didn't want to spend large amounts of money on one.

Daniel wrote:Apparently so. They also had vertical models. I'm not sure what advantage a conical rotor has, except perhaps to control the clearance better. The ones in these photos are coding sirens - notice the solenoid at the base. Low pitched six-port sirens seemed to be popular in the 1930's, as the nearby Hedberg company also built some, but Bullard also had twelve-port sirens. I know of a twelve-port Bullard still mounted to the roof of a fire station north of Redding, California. There was one in Chilcoot, California (near Reno, NV) which was removed several years ago. If the West Coast had had the population of the East Coast back in the day, perhaps there would be more Bullards, Hedbergs, and Heaths around like there are HOR sirens.

I could almost kill for a recording of one o these.