Rotateing air warning systems, existance?

[q2bman]

I was sitting in my apartment watching tv when i heard the familure honk of a set of 3 chime locomotive horns. I thought to myself. These bad boys realy can be heard for quite some distance. I live about 5 miles from the tracks and can hear them over my tv with the place sealed up tight. I can't hear the warning sirens that way. Is there such an animal as a rotateing warning system that uses horns? Like a rotateing diaphone or something similar. It would be hard to seal a rotateing air joint but the sound output of a rotateing 5 chime would be awsome! Also, I can't imagine the air supply system. This setup, allthough loud, may not be as practical as I thought.

[Daniel]

Wasn't there a photo of a diaphone-shaped horn on a rotator? There is not much of a need to have rotating Tyfon (diaphragm) horns, because they are cheap enough to have several on a manifold pointing in different directions. If you tried this with sirens, you would get something like this, the siren on the VFD in Wolf Creek, Oregon (Juntura, Oregon has one too):

[SirenMadness]

A system of rotation on a horn would be cool, but because a horn does coded signals of rapid turn-on and -off, a rotation-system would have its comprehensiveness masked for a certain area at a time, unless the rotation of the diaphragm is stopped per sound. Yes, it is cheap enough to have separate diaphragms on one installation, preferably four diaphragms, each one spaced ninety degrees from the other; installations such as that do exist.
But it would not be hard to devise a rotating-system for a diaphragm, as long as the joint can hold the weight of it.

[Robert Gift]

Interesting photo, Daniel.

Those sirens appear as though their rotor inputs are mechanically amplified.

But it is the stator ports from where the sound emits.

Would love to measure the rotor input volume compared to the stator output.

Those sirenshould have their air entering from the motor side (rear), thus cooling the motor, and exhausting through the stator with one large bell around the stator.

[Trey]

Those sirenshould have their air entering from the motor side, cooling the motor, and exhausting through the stator with one larger bell on the stator.

Those are older style Model As or just as probable, Model Ds.

The newer As (1980s+) have fans in the motor housing, connected to the motor to cool off the motor. I am not sure about Ds or early As.

[loudmouth]

there are multiple fire stations and town halls that have horns that face east,west,north,south. ill see if i can get a pic of some of them some time.

[Daniel]

I believe that they are Model D sirens, because the Model A has a straight, conical intake horn and a smaller rotor. This three-siren arrangement was sold for use in very small towns.

Here's an example of multidirectional horns from Mt. Shasta, California. These are the horns I remember hearing through much of my childhood. After 1992, when the coding mechanism was removed, they were abandoned. Now, the two large horns will sound on rare occasion, but the small ones are not connected. I believe that what is wrapped around the horns is heating cable, due to their very cold and snowy winters.




Here's another one -- ancient Buell(?) horns in Amity, Oregon, which are disconnected but can be used if their Model 2 dies.

[Conky 2000]

By the way, you COULD have a rotating air horn system, but you shouldn't do it unless you have some major bucks, free to spend. Why buy 3 rotating air horns for maybe $20,000 dollars when you can have 1 rotating siren for maybe $18,000? Spend wisely, kids.

[Blasty]

A quick connect fitting like >THIS< on a larger scale would probably work well to deliver air to a rotating system. The hydraulics trainer that I used at the community college used fittings like this, and they can be moved around without leaking. The horns could be mounted on a turntable that rides on bearings in order to keep the weight off of the fitting.

The downside is that a rotating system would require maintenance, such as greasing the bearings and the fitting. A group of stationary horns would not.

[Robert Gift]

Absolutely fascinating, Daniel.

Thank you.

Must have been much trouble to make those flaring curving "tubas".

Or can they just carefully bend those horns IN a tube bender?

Those horns could be terminated just where they suddenly flare into the "bells". Those flared bells are just for looks.
They accomplish nothing in coupling the sound to the atmosphere.
Likewise, you could cut off the bells of tubas/Sousaphones without detriment.