Originally manufactured by the Bierasch and Niedemeyer Company, which began manufacturing sirens in 1942 as part of a civil defense contract awarded by the Army.
The upper horn is missing; is this common? Can one be found? How about an owner's manual? Lots of question!Tested on Monday, September 18, 1953 at 12:15 pm by Greater York Civil Defense. One of the East's loudest air raid sirens. Sunday, September 24, 1953 was the biggest air raid rehearsal to date, a three-hour simulated attack on the area. Monday, September 18, 1953 was to merely ensure that the siren is all set to do its job on the 24th. During the first dry run, the siren was heard at York Hospital, atop Queen Street hill, and close to Emigsville. Over 2,000 workers participated in the Greater York area air raid test alert on Sunday, September 20, 1953, which did not interfere with church services. The "incident" was centered at Memorial Stadium - York suffered some 250 causalities when an atomic bomb was dropped on West Market Street at 12:53 pm. The bomb, which burned and destroyed simulated buildings McCrory Stores corporation, P. Wiest department store, Trinity First Reformed church and W.T. Grant company department store, actually was exploded in the southwest corner of Memorial Stadium. The CD network called in hospital and medical units, fire police, and other activists from a 100-mile area when the alert went off. About 500 pieces of mobile equipment was in use. Traffic was stopped and citizens were called upon to take cover. The siren was set on the wobble to see if greater coverage would be gained. Shortly after the explosion in which 250 Boy and Sea Scouts from York-Adams area became "causalities", a decontamination squad of men dressed in rubber boots, gas masks, and other protective clothing arrived on the scene with Geiger counters to test the area for radioactive elements. Fire fighting apparatus from companies including Rex, Laurel, Rescue, Lincoln, Victory, Reliance, and Grantley fought the fires. The casualties were evacuated to William Penn Senior High School, Phineas Davis Junior High School, and Jackson and Devers Elementary Schools. From the evacuation centers, the victims were taken to York and West Side Osteopathic hospitals. Others were flown in CAP planes to hospitals in Lancaster and Columbia. On the wobble means that the siren's horn dips up and down as it makes it circuit around the horizon.
. The part that spins to make the sound was removed, sand blasted and reinstalled in new bearings. Some welding repairs, new plugs, wires, distributor cap, etc. It has just sat around in storage since then. My volunteer and I are revisiting it.
