Carters of Burnley, Secomak Limited Minimite sirens

[Dorianelevator]

sorry for bumping such old thing, but i have minimites too, they look like this : , apart from that, they all seem to have the black label instead of red writing, they are all 12V DC versions. one of them scrapes the stator tho. and i dunno what happened to one of them but one is yellowed for some reason. finally one of them was even brand new and sealed. i had to literally unseal the original tape. but atleast they work good and that new one is in PERFECT contition. probably my favorite mini sirens.

[rcb_1975]

Late to the party with this.

Amazing collections of the Mini-Mites. Thanks to all for sharing photos.

I used to see a lot of these on Fire Alarm installations within Derbyshire County Council buildings in the UK, constructed (or refurbished) after 1972.
A few of the insallations used 24v sirens, powered from a large central battery, most of them did not have control panels - but were known as "3-wire" systems, so all of the break glass units and sounders were interconnected - using only 3 wires (Pos, Neg and Switch wire).
These systems were nightmares to work on, as they were "Normally Open" - in normal state, all break glass units were Open Circuit.
When the alarm was activated, the sirens would sound, but no visual indication as to where the activation was. So you (or the fire officers) had to check every break glass unit.
Some installs (mainly the gent ones) had a small box with a "diverter" relay, so you could silence the sounder while you looked for the broken glass.
When you pressed the button, it would operate a relay - silence the main alarm and sound a local buzzer - to warn you a glass was still broken somewhere.

To add insult to injury, a majority - if not all of the council installations post 1973 - used the Carters 240v Mini-Mites - the slightly longer ones - so, not only would your ears bleed for a while - you risked electric shock if you had to work live!!
Lost of schools built 1973-1983 had this type of install - and for many years thereafter.

As for how old the minimites are - most had production date stamped inside - however - the first UK patent was filed in 1971 and then in he US n 1972.

Later models didn't have Carters embossed on them.

"TACO" - this is an abbreviation of "Thomas Ashworth & Co" - their Nelson/Burnley factory was known as the "Taco Works".
I think Thomas Ashworths became Carters - either via a Merger, or buyout/takeover.