Anyone know what this sounds like?

[Travis]

One of the reasons I like going to a big school is because of the wide variety of old buildings we have. We also have some very interesting general/fire alarm system setups. (and by interesting I mean ancient) I know what most are, and what I don't know, I research. I couldn't figure this one out though. The strobe is made by Federal signal, however some of the other units like this have old Gentex strobes on them. The horn part was made by Atlas Sound, but I couldn't find anything about it on their website. I am assuming this is an original unit that hasn't been updated. I do not know what the chime next to it is for, but half of the chimes are missing flat chime part.

[Daniel]

I don't know about the horn, but the chime sounds much like a single-note doorbell. There is also a round version by Edwards that looks like an aluminum bell, but sounds almost exactly the same as the bar type. These were commonly used in hospitals as fire alarms, because the gentle sound wouldn't frighten patients with bad hearts and they could code the signal to identify where the alarm was coming from. Before these, they used single-stroke bells, and today it is usually electronic chimes.

[Thunderbolt 612]

I once heard another hospital fire alarm that sounded like an electronic elevator direction chime.

[Daniel]

I was standing in the hall of our local hospital last month (St. Charles Medical Center) when the alarm sounded in a drill. It was an electronic chime that repeated about once per second, and hidden fire doors in the hallways all closed at once. About 20 years ago, I was in the hospital in Ashland, OR, when their system went off. It had Edwards round-shaped chimes that sounded a 2-3 code.