Old School Fire Alarms

[Pete]

I've never seen anything like these before!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DptWWXVlKHw

[Daniel]

When I went to school in northern California, all fire alarms were much like this. They used AC horns with a 60 Hz. tone and usually sounded either code 4-4 or a one-second march time. Most of those schools were built in the 1950's, so they had break-glass stations instead of the 1920's-style rod system.

[Pete]

I grew up in the same era...60hz horns (Edwards Adaptahorn 360s), sounding steady. The building would dang near vibrate with all of those things going.

I'd never seen a rod-style pull station before! Really cool.

[Daniel]

This is exactly what the fire horns in my junior high sounded like back in the 80's, except that they did 4-4 and not 4-4-4-4.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBCBppnw7OU

[lilrags16]

Fire alarm enthusiast coming thru....That should be a Simplex 4030. That or some IBM horn

[siren_face2000]

That 2nd video almost sounds like a precursor to a modern game show buzzer

[Frotz]

That 2nd video almost sounds like a precursor to a modern game show buzzer

I think that old-time gameshow buzzers were things like this. Nowadays it's easier to use a sound sample from somewhere.