Standard Electric Model 50 horn documentation

[Frotz]

I just purchased a decommissioned Standard Electric Model 50 fire horn. I have a particular fondness for it because that model of horn and other Standard Electric devices were used at my elementary school. Does anyone here have any documentation on this horn? I find pretty much nothing about this horn through google.

[I Wanna Name]

https://forums.thefirepanel.com/viewtop ... f=4&t=6246 If this is the horn. I don't know if you've been to this website already, but there's some helpful info there.

[sirendude2012]

I have one of these. Standard Electric Time Co. rebadged Federal products and sold them as their own, like W.S. Darley does to Sentry sirens nowadays. On the bottom, I'm pretty sure you'll find "Federal 1466" or something embossed into the bottom of the horn.

As for documentation, I haven't had much success either.

[Frotz]

https://forums.thefirepanel.com/viewtop ... f=4&t=6246 If this is the horn. I don't know if you've been to this website already, but there's some helpful info there.

That's the one. I also saw that post, but it didn't really have anything to say beyond transformer selection.

[Daniel]

One of my high schools had those as fire alarms back in the late 80's (the school was built in 1952). The horns were turned in opposite directions like the letter "S," except the one in the gym which had only one horn pointing forward.

[Frotz]

At my school, these were used both as fire alarms and time periods (end of recess, etc) along with electric gongs. The difference was that for timing periods, the periods were marked with a single blast of five seconds. Fire alarms were one second on and one second off for ten cycles, then thirty seconds of silence, then another cycle of short blasts again. This would go on for about ten minutes. We had frequent drills and once in a while one of the "bad kids" would pull an alarm switch.

[Daniel]

I went to high school in the mid-80's. What these schools use now, I don't know, but my high school in California with the Standard Model 50 fire alarm horns sounded them in a 60 BPM march time. Class changes were signaled by 6" bells. The fire alarm at my other high school in Oregon used a combination of Simplex Vibratones (60 Hz. tone), Ademco motor horns in the new building (sounded horrible), a couple of bells, and two IBM Model L-size sirens in the old gym, all with a continuous, steady blast. Class changes were via 6" bells outdoors, clock buzzers in the classrooms, and one old Benjamin vibratory horn on the oldest part of the school from 1907.

[Frotz]

Here are some teardown pics of my horn:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/32548582@ ... 286280377/

[sirendude2012]

Looks correct. Yours isn't in bad shape. By the way, you can buy the power supply required to run it at Radioshack for about $13.

[Frotz]

I figured a simple 120VAC to 12VAC transformer would do the trick. I need some stuff from Jameco, so that'll be in the cart.