Another Interesting Tidbit

[j-c-c-62]

Hope I am not boring anybody, this link is overall interesting, but it is the last item in the link, a hemi powered air raid siren that is most noteworthy.
Not mentioned is the entire unit rotated 360 Degrees when in use for better coverage.
I saw my first one in the 70's sitting atop the roof of the Miami Jai Lai Fronton not far from the Miami International airport.
If indeed it could be heard up to 25 miles, that was a good place as there were no nearby tall buildings.
I have no idea if it was operational when I first saw it, and 10? years later it was taken out of service and was sitting on the ground nearby and the Hemi was clearly obvious.

MSN

 

[Pecos Bill]

Hope I am not boring anybody, this link is overall interesting, but it is the last item that is most noteworthy.
Not mentioned is the entire unit rotated 360 Degrees when in use for better coverage.
I saw my first one in the 70's sitting atop the roof of the Miami Jai Lai Fronton not far from the Miami International airport.
If indeed it could be heard up to 25 miles, that was a good place as there were no nearby tall buildings.
I have no idea if it was operational when I first saw it, and 10? years later it was taken out of service and was sitting on the ground nearby and the Hemi was clearly obvious.

MSN

It would be a benefit to everyone if you would mention that you was talking about the air raid siren.

 

[BeepBeepRR]

The Chrysler Air Raid Siren​

The Chrysler air raid sirent on display© Wikicommons
It shouldn't surprise anyone that we saved the best and most zany contraption for last. Chrysler build an air raid siren back in the 1950s to, as Jalopnik put it, "warn Americans of their impending nuclear doom." Chrysler started making air raid sirens with car engines as early as the 1940s. However, early iterations of the product were widely panned. In one example, San Antonio bought five sirens for $20,000, which is over $350,000 when adjusted for inflation, and weren't satisfied with the performance.


Chrysler made the air raid siren with the 331 Hemi, and my goodness is this thing loud. It's capable of discharging 2,610 feet of air per minute at seven PSI. It was powerful enough to blast birds from the sky and the military even used it at one point to move fog. It could make 138 decibels of noise from 100 feet away, and could be heard as far away as 25 miles. However, many of them required manual controls, meaning one person had to operate the thing until the hypothetical nuclear blast showed up.

Chrysler says that 350 total air raid sirens exist, although independent research puts that number closer to 108 total documented sightings of the siren across history. There is a neat map that you can use to see where they were, and which ones are still in operation to this day. It still holds the Guinness world record as the loudest air raid siren ever produced.

[Image by User PBMI via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 3.0]

Read the original article on SlashGear.

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

I think there was one at Chrysler Carlisle this year we heard it and thought it was a tornado warning!

 

[71dodgechargerrt]

Yes it was on top of the hill beside the Sherman tank.

 

[j-c-c-62]

BTW, at the sound level reported in the link, that siren works out to be 162db at six feet. Ouch!

 

[Part Stalker]

Funny I saw one at a car show at a local wrecking yard back in May. Should have taken a closer picture but you can see it in the bed of the trailer.

 

[Cranky]

A few years back I had a CD recording of one but that CD won't play anymore. It was of the engine starting and warming up a bit then engaging the siren. It was pretty awesome sounding!

 

[Cranky]

It would be a benefit to everyone if you would mention that you was talking about the air raid siren.

And is it even a 'tech' worthy post?

 

[j-c-c-62]

And is it even a 'tech' worthy post?

Not sure, but it's not clear to me where to best place it, its definitively a mopar Hemi related topic and article.
Please advise.

 

[Cranky]

Not sure, but it's not clear to me where to best place it, its definitively a mopar Hemi related topic and article.
Please advise.

Well, looks to me like it could have gone into the General Forum....usually the tech section is for talking about technical stuff. No biggie though.

 

[j-c-c-62]

Well I considered that, but the subtitle of General seemed to discourage that:
"Forum for general discussion and other non automotive stuff."
This is not the first time for me to be puzzled if I am in the right place.

 

[Cranky]

Well I considered that, but the subtitle of General seemed to discourage that:
"Forum for general discussion and other non automotive stuff."
This is not the first time for me to be puzzled if I am in the right place.

The siren is for sure non automotive

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

What post louder!

 

[DeltaV]

The siren is for sure non automotive

And a sad day it is!

 

[Mariposa Mike]

I remember these going off once per month in the Los Angeles County Verdugo Mountains. To test them. On Friday at 1100 hours for 15 minutes. I was miles away and clearly heard the siren ramping up. When I went hiking one day in the mountains I came upon the tower and noticed the 332? Hemi engine with a 2bbl carb. That started my curiosity and later I saw a picture of a flatbed trainload of them being delivered somewhere. Then, in the late 70's I was working for the Sheriffs department in the area and that one did not turn off. I was sent up there with a key to do that. My ears have been ringing ever since. It was a "growler" so it took awhile to wind down. They were deactivated soon after that. I don't recall now how many there were in the county but it might have been 4 located in the most populated areas.

 

[matthon]

 

[WileE]

All you kiddies here probably don't know what I'm referring to, but in my youth in school besides fire drills, we also had Air Raid drills.

 

[Krooser]

All you kiddies here probably don't know what I'm referring to, but in my youth in school besides fire drills, we also had Air Raid drills.

We had to hide from the bombs next to the school boiler that housed the steam that heated the school... that was plenty safe!!!

When the boiler fired up the whole room shook!

 

[ynst]

I had a chance to buy one back in the late seventies. I wanted the engine block but an acquaintance beat me to it.

He kept the engine and cut everything else up for scrap.