Tanque

You must admit there's a certain coolness about something 65+ years old that still works this well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi0Ka...1&feature=fvwp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8yIE...eature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTf9X...1&feature=fvwp

We collect model tanks other people collect other things...

Jerry

swathdiver

A few years ago I stumbled upon a group who collected searchlights. Interesting stuff! Maybe I could put one of those air raid sirens in my kid's rooms? [:-]

Gex

A fella next door to where I used to work ran a searchlight outfit and he had somewhere between 5-10 GE searchlights from WWII. Pretty neat machines!

Rex Ross

If ya had a siren that would start at noon, and when it got up to speed, it would fire a cannon that set off a rocket that exploded at 500 feet, you would have something.

Forget noon, midnight is better.

candycab

I went to an estate sale a few years back and they had a Korean War era U.S. Army Portable Landing Strip.

It was pretty wild from what I could see, long rows of lights linked together all rolled up and a pretty large generator with Control Panel. No idea what it sold for or if anyone actually bought it. I paid $10.00 for a mint condition Military Volt Ohm Meter of about the same era that takes giant battery cells and weighs a ton. It looks like something out of a mad scientists lab 

swathdiver

Where the picture of it? You can't tell us about something that cool without a photo!

sevoblast

We still have them here, and they still work. They get tested every few weeks. Guess it's in case the Tatari and Mongol hords come surging through again.

pattoncommander

Amazing how they stood up, especially the very precise balance that takes them so long to slow down and stop. It's a wonder that they even sound them, as for many years after the war in Germany, a siren would throw many older people in a panic stage or cause nervous disorders. Thats why European police/ambulances have the two tone signal as opposed to the wailing siren.

In 1961 in Fulda, I was with the 14th AC Regt on the border. Every day at noon, they would sound the siren for 5 seconds to keep a check on it. One day, a dumb Lieutenant pushed the wrong button and the siren wailed for over 10 minutes before they could get it shut down.

Tanks rolled out to alert positions; my tank was in the welding shop and since the ammo was under a tarp at the other end of the motor park, we had repainted the turret interrior. The welding crew went to chow and had locked the main door. We got in, drove through door, drove up and loaded our ammo into the wet paint and went through a chain link fence on the way to our alert area. It took the best part of a day and a half to get everyone back in...., and the better part of the week to notify and get all the dependent families back en route to France, that had packed up the kids and ran to get away from the Russians. With my crew, we had to completely unload & clean up all the ammo and discard our "painted" uniforms. The lieutenant was "councelled" for his action by the Regt CO.

Sirens are interesting but they were designed for a purpose that can still cause nervous breakdowns.

Pah co chu puk

My small town still calls it's firefighters to the station with a siren like that. 

I am a volunteer firefighter and that tone puts me into action mode every time it goes off.  It gets under your skin.  

Around the world, that tone means trouble is here.