Hi 440:
I remember this thread on the BBC archive:
www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/forum/topic/4097-roof-speaker-questions-and-answers/page__p__4840__hl__+siren%20+canada__fromsearch__1#entry4840that has some info on sirens. That first youtube was posted, but I don't think I've seen those last three you post. Thanks! Here's a copy of the highlights of that BBC thread:
Yellowrr wrote:
When I built mine I printed some screen captures from the DVD on my computer, and just used some scrap wood from an old house that they were tearing down near here. I even deliberately bent over some of the nails and banged the hammer a few more times than necessary to give it that "crude / slapped together" look. I used a 20 gallon plastic bucket, and 2 plastic pails to make it look close to what a big speaker might look like. The "horn" at the rear is made with some of the corrugated plastic sheet from an old election sign.
Here are the screen caps, and mine...
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W-O-W writes:
I have made a Roof Speaker with 2 Kenwood 60w Speakers fully working Music and PA but it looks a bit small
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flcl64 then posted this youtube link:
76bluesmobile wrote:
What I would like to know is where that row of sirens in crates at the end of that vid was located at - imagine if that still existed - one siren for practically everybody here.
Anybody ever try to get measurements off the one located next to that small building. If I remember, it is located on or near a military installation - any chance of them allowing measurements? I doubt very much that it could ever be purchased.
and TK826 responded
The crate photos came from eBay... years ago.
From what I understand they were listed once, didn't sell.. and never returned.
The military installation is in Canada.
I've collected a bit of info on this subject, over the years...
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Steam related how JosephBlues got his siren plans from scaling up from the ERTL model:
I made the horn, through much trial and error, out of (front ring) single one man trampoline ring. Screwed eight supports to a 2 foot dia. flex conduit attached to a half 50 gal plastic barrel. Used an industrial lamp shade (maybe track light shade) I found at a junk store for the end of the barrel. Covered the 18" from tramp. ring to barrel with alum. flashing. Just a note it took two weeks of meditation in Sun. school to figure how to cut the flashing to cover a cone. Maybe I should have listened more to the ss teacher, God may have lessened the headache I had trying to put this horn together from scrap. Anyway, I used the 1/18 model to scale it out. Used 18" of 8 " sewer pipe (new not used) The snorkle looking thing is actually, Lowe's heat duct and 45 angle filled in with flashing and heating duct tape . I got the top peice pointed wrong. Inside ring is more flex conduit( I really rushed this to get ready for the weekend of the 25th.) A piece of roofing tin bent to form a cone (see above reference to Sunday school) attached to a plastic laundry hamper. Center is a 11'' plastic plant pot inverted. Incidently the whole thing can be lifted easily, not heavy at all. Sprayed it all with grey primer. Added a 6x9 speaker in the plant pot, ran it to the stereo. I plan to put in a cb with pa and wire a two way switch for both. Square end box is alum flashing cut at an angle and heating duct tape. Held up at about 30 mph on a 15 mile ride. Thanks for the interest.
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And then there's discussion of the Diefenbunker in Canada:
diefenbunker.ca/en_index.shtmland TK826 writes:
As far as the Diefenbunker having 3 sirens, I have heard that also.
But, I believe it to be false.
There was speculation that a third one might be inside the bunker.
But, not too long ago, the
"501st-Canadian Garrison"
www.501st.ca/was allowed to shoot a fan film at the museum.
Vader's Apprentice - The 501st -9355 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
www.flickr.com/photos/terrio/3690972094/They posted all kinds of photos of their tour throughout the entire place, and there doesn't appear to be any trace of a third siren.
The technical specs for this siren seem to have been lost over time.
There are a couple website/message boards out there dedicated solely to cold war era sirens.
This siren has proven to be an anomaly, even to them.
(Because these are so rare, I'm thinking they were not made in different sizes)
From what I have learned, most of what is known about the siren is found on the small mfg. name plate. (volts, amps, HP. etc)
It is estimated to be around 4 feet tall.
With the standard base, the siren weighs in at around 600-800 pounds all together.
Because so little is known about it, (and without being able to examine it's internal mechanisms) no one has yet been able to actually figure out how it even works.
Many people believe that it's a dual toned model, housing a rotor/stator assembly
in the base of the front projector, and a second one in the rear chamber that has the hook-shaped horn coming off it.
It is possible that they were originally designed to be single-tone sirens,
but were then modified with an added rear rotor, because Canadian regulations required dual-tone sirens for civil defense purposes.
The front is actually a horn within a horn.
It is believed air enters through the central horn and sound is dispersed through the space between the inner and outer cones.
On the back, air would enter another horn, through the little protrusion on the back, and exits through the top of the hook-shaped rear section.
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76Bluesmobile:
Has anyone considered trying to contact the Diefenbunker to see if they might be willing to provide some basic measurements of the horn they have on display? If noone has, I would be willing to pen a letter. I have my doubts but it never hurts to try. I also was looking at pics of the Bluesmobile with the speaker on top and noticed the outer cone was about the same width as the front pushbars - about 28 or 29 inches wide. I also had the same idea as JosephBlues - use standard duct work for the square piping on the back - looks like it works well from the pic he had.
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TK826:
There is one noteable difference I recently noticed...
The horizontal "tube" that connects the front and rear sections.
That area, on the real siren, looks to be wider and shorter than the one on the Bluesmobile.
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Neums:
I think you people are overanalizing this speaker thing. The one on the movie car was a plastic prop. It wasn't a real airaid speaker. A real one would crush the roof in.
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TK826:
Of course, it absolutely was a prop siren.
But, to make an accurate replica, it can only help to learn about the original.
I too had always thought a real one would crush a car roof, but like I mentioned above...
with the standard base, (from what I understand) the siren weighs in at around 600-800 pounds all together.
[If a real one was used] the base would have to be removed anyway, taking even more of the weight away.
So it seems that it might in fact be light enough.
I wouldn't want a real one anyway.
I just want to know enough about it to create an accurate replica, at a fraction of the weight.
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blueblood:
s there a way one could be gutted? I'm not familiar with the dynamics of how the thing operates, but losing the base has to cut down on the weight, no?
Could it be possible to support the roof for a real siren much like the support bracing in my car was for the
Leslie Bee? (granted the boat was balsa wood)
[and then later adds: The picture above is deceiving. It actually is thick steel! ]
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Steam:
I had no idea that this particular siren was so rare. I can remember seeing them in the city, well one anyway, driving along the Queensway you could see it high up its perch. This was after The Blues Brothers came out on VHS, one of my buds and I would joke about climbing up there in suits for a picture. Of course we never did that, but you could still see it as late as '83-'84.
I've also read that the CLM Industries air-raid siren was never used in Chicago. It was probably Dan's idea to use a siren he would have been familiar with from Ottawa and Toronto. Plus, it's a kick-ass looking siren compared to other ones I've seen pics of.
I remember reading an article years ago that those sirens were being brought down, specifically the Ottawa and Toronto sirens, and no one seemed to know where they went.
Have you ever e-mailed the Diefenbunker, TK? It's a local phone call for me. I could ask about any possible specifications for the sirens. Lemme know. I wonder how ERTL came up with their specs?
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Yellowrr write:
I made mine out of a plastic wash tub and two plastic car wash buckets. I also used some scrap wood from a house that the were tearing down in our neighborhood a while back. The "horn" on the back is actually made from old election signs (Coroplast). I laid it out in AutoCAD and cut it out of cardboard a couple of times before I made it out of Coroplast. Some spray can primer, gray and black, some rope from Lowe's or Home Depot... It doesn't look 100% accurate to the movie, BUT I can install and remove it by myself, and the plastic horn fits in the back seat while the wooden platform fits in the trunk. My guitar case (full of my dashboard props, "wanted" posters, etc.) fits inside and the trunk closes just fine too.
I sent in the AutoCAD drawing for the horn, and a small stack of photos of my stuff assembled & disassembled about a year ago before BB Central revamped the site, but haven't been on enough lately to see if they ever posted them somewhere on here for everyone.
If anyone wants me to re-post this, I'll be glad to, but it may take me a few more days.
and Ghostbluesman responded that he has a copy of yellowrr's Autocad drawings.
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S-C-M-O-D-S added this pic:
and then I asked:
Do I understand correctly that what needs to be done is to drive to
3911 Carp Road Carp, Ontario
and measure this horn:
as found on this map:
What would be best to do? Take pictures "straight on", and take measurements dimensions of things as shown here:
, so that one could analyze the "straight on" pictures to calculate measurements of everything else?
And then go when the museum is open and ask if they have two other horns like this?
If all we need is the measurement in pic 3, surely we could talk someone at the museum into measuring that for us. Heck, instead of that huge drive up there, we could put an ad in the "Carp" craigslist, saying we'd pay $5 for a set of pics showing a ruler against the length/width/height of that rectangular prism below the horn.
I don't have any plans to go, but I wouldn't be against putting this location in my "bluesmobile-related places to visit" list. It's a good excuse for a (really really) long drive. Maybe I could drive up there and get a pic WITH MY BLUESMOBILE in front of the siren!
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And Steam writes:
Or, you could contact the guy in Toronto who bought the air raid siren pictured here ...
I bet he'd have the measurements/specs. If you want to contact him you could try through the The siren Board forums ...
www.airraidsirens.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9673&sid=e17b7b518e0dfa87a0e9dbef173e1072--------------
Steam:
Looks like as of last summer there were still three sirens perched in Toronto ...
Quote
Recently, while reading the latest edition of Spacing magazine, I was surprised to find a short article on air raid sirens in Toronto. It featured a nice Matthew Blackett photo of an air raid siren on a pole in Bayview Village Park and a short explanation of its history. What really attracted my attention was that, almost in passing, it mentioned that there are two more such sirens, one at the Harbourfront Centre, and one at the northwest corner of Dundas and Shaw near Trinity Bellwoods Park.
Way Out In The Margin: Heritage: A Hidden Air Raid Siren
wayoutinthemargin.blogspot.com/2010/08/heritage-hidden-air-raid-siren.html---
I also noticed a youtube vid from the Diefenbunker uploaded just a couple of months ago where you can see two sirens outside.
One of them wasn't locked.
YouTube - CLM Air Raid sirens at the Diefenbunker Museum
and TK826 adds:
Yeah, there are two outside.
The mystery is that there are reports that there is a third one, inside.
I've seen ...many... photos of the inside of the bunker, but have yet to see
any sign of a third siren.
.
. That is a good one, doubled. It weighed 80 lbs? lol, that's wild. Arthur I think you missed the Japanese one. These guys had one made out of fiberglass ...
