Air Raid Siren

**Haydon** · 05-20-2010, 05:55 PM

Hi Guys,

Today i purchased couple of air raid sirens, they are not from WW2 but were manufactured in 1951.

they are both made from what appears to be bakelite, and although filthy, appear to be in very good condition.

anyways i was wondering if anyone had any knowledge on the bad boys, the wires from both units have both been cut, but i was wondering if i could replace the wiring with new stuff, and try these out

your thoughts as usual are allways appreciated.

p.s is it illegal to set these of

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 05-20-2010 05:55 PM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**Panzer 3** · 05-23-2010, 03:49 PM

Hi Hayden,
nice find you reminded me of being a boy again, we had a siren in our town mortlake london. It was on top of a high pole in the local green, and the starter box was on the pole at the bottom.
the wires were cut from the switch but you could twist them and it would go off. then we would run like mad, it was going for ages untill someone got there. Great fun. as for your ones i think it is
Illegal to set them off now days. ( nukes and all that ) but you could rewire them with new wire i think it would be worth a go.
dont let them run for to long though. Can you imagine what would happen, great stuff.
dave.
ps give them a good clean magic relic, love em.

**CMc** · 05-25-2010, 03:57 PM

I'm not sure what the legal situation on setting of an air raid siren would be, for the purposes of some sort of historical display it'd probably be alright (in a similar vein, police, fire and ambulance service vehicles (and various others, sorry I missed you out HM Coastguard et al!) in the UK are obliged to have their blue lights and sirens disarmed on decommissioning, but in the case of restored historic vehicles, the authorities don't seem to mind the lights and sirens working for display/film/renactment etc purposes, just so long as nobody tries to use them on the public road or for any fraudulent purpose. I wonder if it'd be the same for these sirens, that they'd be fine to be included as part of a historical display or reenactment.

Also, probably best not to test them too much when you're in the house or a heavily-populated area, or the neighbours might have you arrested for noise pollution!

**Adrian Stevenson** · 05-25-2010, 09:09 PM

I have used air raid sirens at re-enactments events in the past, no problem as it is in context of the event. But don't try it in the middle of a housing estate!

I think these are great and look forwards to seeing them cleaned up.

Cheers, Ade.

**shadowwolf** · 05-25-2010, 09:45 PM

I once tested out a hand wound air raid siren, outside in the street in a housing estate, before taking the siren up to a local school where I was giving a talk on local WW2 history. I needed to find out how loud it was before demonstrating it to the children in the classroom. I was a bit concerned about how the neighbours would react, but all was ok as they guessed it was me

Regards to all, Simon.