Old school fire drill

This is how fire drills sounded when I was a kid, and they still do in this small school. This is an Edwards system installed in 1956, complete with six volt horns and the square-domed "trouble bell." These sound much nicer than those screeching, high-pitched piezo horns most schools use today.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• fire
• drill
• alarm
• horn
• buzzer
• bell
• school
• evacuation
• test
• alert
• siren
• Feueralarm
• brandalarm
• fouco
• fogo
• incindio
• feu
• trouble
• square

[Audinos]

Watch the video called "Simplex Fire Alarm Testing" to hear what most fire alarms sounded like before the late 1980's. My 1950's high school fire alarm sounded exactly like this.

[canadiancatgreen]

great video but you went the wrong way you supoosed to get out when the alarm goes off

[Audinos]

@canadiancatgreen As assistant principal, I was responsible for making sure that all students were out of the classrooms and restrooms.

[PlausableApple4]

These alarms sound like the hum of an electrical/mechanical room of a commercial building. Only the hum is much quieter.

[Audinos]

@PlausableApple4 Until the 1980's, most electric horns ran on AC and sounded a 60 Hz. buzz (the actual pitch you hear is 120 Hz.). If this were in a country which used 50 Hz., the pitch would be a couple notes lower.

[RockinTimmy]

This alarm sounds like the one at Blair Moody school, has anyone ever had 3 Fire Drills in one day? Our principal told us about 2, then the one at 2:35 was a surprise. Anyone ever have that happen?

[wurlitzer165]

It sounded like my Piano Hospital School's bell.

[7002talarm24]

I never saw an edwards pull station like that It looks standard on the outside but vintage on the inside. What a coincidence old school fire drill.

[lkfcobra]

simplex 4037

[southpark326]

where is this

[alberjs]

@wileyk209zback Yeah I presume the John Peace Library, Science Building, and the Multidisciplinary Studies Building (the other 1970s buildings) at once had those systems, but they now have what I imagine are Simplex 4100 Voice Evac with TrueAlert Speaker Strobes. Those were replaced before I began attending there in '08. The older Engineering Building has an old system that has what looks like 9219 horns turned on their sides with the strobe on the top and not the right side.

[wileyk209zback]

@alberjs Yep, that's exactly what this building had (referring to the Merkert-Tracy Hall.) IDK if it had any TrueAlerts though.

At least a couple of buildings at Bridgewater State University still have 1970s-era Simplex systems, but IDK how much longer they'll be around, as many of the other buildings have newer Simplex 4100U or 4100ES systems with TrueAlerts

[alberjs]

@wileyk209zback The systems that I am referring to were in the arts and humanities buildings. It was presumably a Simplex 2001 system with old silver smoke detectors, 4051 Horns on 4050-80 Light Plates (Simplex True Alerts were retrofitted into those horns as they burned out), and old break glass then pull handle pulls.

[wileyk209zback]

@alberjs What were they? The one at Stonehill College they threw away a couple years ago had 4051 horns on 4050-80 light plates, and 4251-30 break-glass pulls. The new Siemens system has cheap RSG dual-action T-bar pulls rebranded by Siemens

[alberjs]

@wileyk209zback Our cheap Siemens system that was replacing the 1970's Simplex Alarms uses Wheelock E-50 Wall Mount Speakers, E-70/E-90 Ceiling Mound Speakers, and ZNS Remote Strobes.

[wileyk209zback]

@GandSAfan I guess, but horns are different from pull stations. I think you could only use coded Gamewell pulls with a Gamewell FlexAlarm system (my middle school from 1957 also has a FlexAlarm system with flush-mount Federal Signal horns.)