Hello,

Can anyone provide information on this mockingbird? Trying to determine year. I’ve found the design in the 1895 catalogue and it seems to change in the 1906 catalogue to a different design. Any thoughts on the year and value?

That would have been a catalog item and thus would be hard to pin down an exact year of production.

Whistle collectors call them "Fire Alarm" whistles.

I've got an 8 inch version of a Lunk fire alarm whistle... and this drawing shows how they work. I've had mine plumbed in to a 125psi steam system, and it was awesome loud!!!!

Here is a video of one working. https://youtu.be/YDRifhelQM4

Yours doesn't seem to have the correct valve to be bottom operated... does that rod that looks to be coming out of the top of the dome actually move a disc on the inside of the bell?

I had an 8" Lunk Fire alarm whistle that came off of a boiler house that I worked in. They quit using it account of noise complaints and when a friend of mine was told to take it down, it was offered to me. I have recently passed it along to a younger guy that I worked with who has an appreciation for history.

Like in the illustration, the one that I got had an offset between where the actuating rod came up from below and the center of the bowl. This whistle pre-dated the Power Plant where it was used and possibly even the Refinery itself. Catalogs might show different types.

There was a phenomenon that occurred when the whistle was blown. When you first hit it with steam, the piston was laying down by gravity at the bottom of the bell and the sound was quite high account of the short bell. When pressure built up inside, it raised the piston and the tone quickly changed to a hoarse low pitch. The whistle was actuated with a solenoid valve. You depressed a button and waited a second or so. I got back at a prankster once by closing off the gate valve over at the wall that supplied steam to the whistle and still have visions of the guy beating with his fist on the button to no avail when nothing happened. Such is life.

Bad order and Tom,

Thank you for the information. As for the valve, the earlier versions used the kind pictured based on what I can see from the catalogue. It does have a plate that is connected to the rod. Mine is missing the chain that would be pulled to move the plate. But it moves and springs back as it should.

This maybe the US patent covering the 1895 version -

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis ... 476472.pdf


When the piston is in its uppermost position as shown in Fig 5, the bell will give forth its deepest tones and will sound a higher and higher key as it is drawn down toward the lower end of the bell.
--

A much later patent - Grant US1288798A Jerome J Aull Lunkenheimer Co
Priority 1915-08-09 • Filing 1915-08-09 • Grant 1918-12-24 • Publication 1918-12-24
The compartments in this type of whistle are of different depth, thereby giving a different pitch for the sound of each compartment, resulting n a harmonic sound of several notes. In whistles of this type, the parts have been constructed in the past with bells of brass or bronze, and the valves … https://patentimages.storage.googleapis ... 288798.pdf

also seems to have a variable pitch

Does the whistle have a patent number anywhere?