Chunky_Dubz
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Looking For A Lead For Sirens in Perkasie, Pennsylvania

Thu Feb 23, 2023 9:00 pm

Hi everyone! I was recently taking a stroll on my bike in a historic town in Pennsylvania, and came across a fire station building. I was curious to know if a siren was located on or near the premise of the building. I looked to my right, and to my surprise, I found a little set of conical pieces perched on an adjacent building. I, of course, became fascinated with this object, and wanted to learn more about the building on which it sat.

This section of the little Pennsylvania town, called Perkasie, has a lot of deep history. Many of the large buildings in this town were once cigar factories. A cluster of factories in a small town that each are working with and containing large amounts of highly flammable materials calls for a pretty secure fire rescue system, at least in my opinion. In fact, during my extensive research for this post, I came across an account of one of the factories actually catching on fire. However, this is not the main topic of this post.

I snapped a few photos of this mysterious artifact that I discovered on top of the building, specifically for this topic.
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Straight view of rooftop object
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Side view of the artifact
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View of the building that the artifact sits on

While writing this post, I decided to do some research on this building to learn more about its history, and why an artifact such as that would be on the building. I found the answer from multiple sources within hours of research. Trust me, this story is interesting.

This tiny eye wonder was directly used by the fire company. It was the predecessor to the usage of a triple-tone air siren(s) (according to only a single sourcehttps://www.perkasiehistory.org/uploads ... et_pdf.pdf), and the successor of a train locomotive tire iron that was donated, courtesy of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, to the fire company. The locomotive tire iron was used as an alarm by being struck by an external clapper, likely a hand-held mallet or hammer. This tire iron now sits in front of the Silverdale Fire Company in, well, Silverdale, Pennsylvania.

Anyway, back to the conical artifact. Taking a look at the sign at the entrance of the building, I noticed that it was at least at one point in time a power generating plant. My research sources later confirmed that this fact is true. The building had been used as a power plant that generated electricity for the town from approximately 1900 to 1947. It was an iconic part of the town, coming complete with a large smokestack that was later removed for safety reasons.

The power plant generated power by using coal-fired boilers to heat water that ran through a Westinghouse Electric Company generator. Steam turbo generators were later added in the 1920's.

So the question that may come to mind is, "why would a small town electric generating station need a siren on the top of their building?" This is actually a double trick question. As I said earlier, this object was used by the fire company, not the power plant. The other part that makes this question a trick question is because it is apparently not an actual siren. It is, in fact a century-old steam powered whistle. This whistle was used like a siren to alert fire fighters of an emergency call until 1947 or 1948 (exact time of retirement is unclear). It was conveniently located on a building that constantly produced steam, except in rare cases. It was supposedly reliable for around 48 years of service before it was directly replaced by "triple-tone air sirens," according to Perkasie Fire Company Centennial Booklet, updated June, 1990. More on that siren a little later.

I rode back to the original fire company building, and noticed a small, siren-like object on the side of the building:
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Image of Fire Company Building
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This is a particularly odd place for a siren. I could not find a single piece of text about this object. All that I could source is an image of the building from 1909 without the siren-like object, and an image of the same building captured around 1919 with the object. (Source: http://grassroots.pennridge.org/p/p-firecohist.html.) If anybody has any insight about this mystery, it would be greatly helpful.

I also kept reading about a "fire alarm" that was placed on the top of the fire company building that was the previous meeting location to the location featured in the photo above. I have no idea what this "fire alarm" would have been, and will likely never find out due to the fact that this building, called the Cressman building, burned down in 1922.

Alright, so I am still on the hunt to find more information about the triple-tone siren that was mentioned in the Perkasie Fire Co. Centennial Booklet that I read. I also have at least two other sources to help me with this hunt. The source that I used in part for most of my early research features a short article and an image of a yellow painted FS Model 5 or 7 (probably, but help me with this one: http://grassroots.pennridge.org/p/p-fireftr.html ). However, it is possible that this is just an image that was extracted online of some random siren, and not the one that resides in Perkasie. My third source is that I am certain that I have heard a siren go off multiple times that came from the Sellersville/Perkasie area when I have visited nearby. There is a siren, but I just do not know where...

If anyone can find a lead on where a siren in this area could likely be, I would be happy to go back sometime soon and get visual confirmation of a siren. If anybody wants to spend time on Google Maps gathering a lead for me, here is a starting link to the current fire station: https://goo.gl/maps/GEjhokqcsfJy8Ajk8. I have already checked three sides of this station in-person for a siren with no luck...yet...

Thank you for your time reading this post. Have a great rest of your day!

Sources:
http://grassroots.pennridge.org/p/p-firecohist.html, Accessed 2/22/23
http://grassroots.pennridge.org/p/p-fireftr.html, Accessed 2/22/23
https://www.perkasiehistory.org/perkasi ... plant.html, Accessed 2/22/23
https://www.perkasiehistory.org/1907-pe ... ntrol.html, Accessed 2/22/23
https://www.perkasiefire.org/about-4, Accessed 2/22/23
https://perkasieborough.org/history-of-perkasie/, Accessed 2/23/23
https://www.perkasiehistory.org/uploads ... et_pdf.pdf, Accessed 2/23/23

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LukeH
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Re: Looking For A Lead For Sirens in Perkasie, Pennsylvania

Sat Feb 25, 2023 5:29 pm

I would be willing to bet, being that the time period is correct, and their somewhat prevalent population in PA, that this was an 8/16 Sterling M code siren, shown in this add below as 16/16, however theses were available as 8/16, which would be two tone, and the brake mechanism added a coded ability. Further research is required, but I will see what I can dig up.
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dat612freakoftoday
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Re: Looking For A Lead For Sirens in Perkasie, Pennsylvania

Mon Mar 06, 2023 1:56 pm

I feel like i have seen one like this somewhere

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Ziginox
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Re: Looking For A Lead For Sirens in Perkasie, Pennsylvania

Wed Mar 08, 2023 6:51 pm

The cluster of horns on that first building are diaphragm horns, not a whistle. They'd typically run on compressed air, but steam is also possible.
The one on front of the old fire hall looks like a Federal Signal/Electric/Whatever Model A. Seeing a small siren like this to warn passersby that a fire truck is about to pull out of the station is pretty common. I looked around a bit and couldn't really see any evidence of sirens mounted elsewhere. Your best bet is to look around any 'public' building. City hall, schools, etc. It's also possible the siren was installed on the power generation building at one point.

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