Stanton Sirens
Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2023 2:50 am
Has anyone ever heard of a Stanton Siren?
I've been trying to track down information about H.O.R. sirens and I came across an article from a town called Greeley Colorado. The article is from the 60's and goes into detail about testing a siren that a gentleman named Ed Stanton built. Sadly, the test was a failure because the 25HP electric motor was too small. They stepped it up to a 40HP motor but it was also too small. They then slapped a 75HP electric motor on it and it was STILL too small. The last bit of information I could find is Ed was going to use a 275 HP V8 out of a Lincoln to get the 24 inch rotor up to the designed speed of 7000 RPM.
Ed Stanton was a natural tinkerer and a machine shop operator. He started building these in WW2 when the town he lived in, Greeley, was looking for a CD siren and the big name manufacturers told the town they couldn't get a siren. Ed stepped up to the cause and built one from scratch (quite literally, scrap steel and leftover automotive parts) and people were able to hear it 15 miles away. After the successful test, Ed took his siren to Denver to demo in front of city officials and it was a massive success. Check points all over the city could hear the siren. From what I can tell, Denver had 7 of these units. The only locations that are mentioned were the water tower on East Ninth avenue and Clayton street and then atop the firehouse at West Fifth avenue and Knox court. Cheyenne had 4 and Casper, Wyoming placed an order for 4, but only had picked up three. The fourth one (the one from the article I referenced above) was then rented out to small cities for New Years Eve celebrations. They were originally delivered with 180HP Chrysler engines like the ones that drive the Chrysler sirens. The demo unit below was built with a single 20 inch rotor, but the later production units were upgraded to dual 20 inch rotors and eventually a 24 inch rotor that rotated on a base.
AFAIK, none of these units survived.
I've been trying to track down information about H.O.R. sirens and I came across an article from a town called Greeley Colorado. The article is from the 60's and goes into detail about testing a siren that a gentleman named Ed Stanton built. Sadly, the test was a failure because the 25HP electric motor was too small. They stepped it up to a 40HP motor but it was also too small. They then slapped a 75HP electric motor on it and it was STILL too small. The last bit of information I could find is Ed was going to use a 275 HP V8 out of a Lincoln to get the 24 inch rotor up to the designed speed of 7000 RPM.
Ed Stanton was a natural tinkerer and a machine shop operator. He started building these in WW2 when the town he lived in, Greeley, was looking for a CD siren and the big name manufacturers told the town they couldn't get a siren. Ed stepped up to the cause and built one from scratch (quite literally, scrap steel and leftover automotive parts) and people were able to hear it 15 miles away. After the successful test, Ed took his siren to Denver to demo in front of city officials and it was a massive success. Check points all over the city could hear the siren. From what I can tell, Denver had 7 of these units. The only locations that are mentioned were the water tower on East Ninth avenue and Clayton street and then atop the firehouse at West Fifth avenue and Knox court. Cheyenne had 4 and Casper, Wyoming placed an order for 4, but only had picked up three. The fourth one (the one from the article I referenced above) was then rented out to small cities for New Years Eve celebrations. They were originally delivered with 180HP Chrysler engines like the ones that drive the Chrysler sirens. The demo unit below was built with a single 20 inch rotor, but the later production units were upgraded to dual 20 inch rotors and eventually a 24 inch rotor that rotated on a base.
AFAIK, none of these units survived.