The Chrysler Air Raid Siren (second generation), or known as the Chrysler Bell Victory Siren (first generation) is an outdoor warning siren produced during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

era that has an output of 138

dB(C) A-weighting is the most commonly used of a family of curves defined in the International standard IEC 61672:2003 and various national standards relating to the measurement of sound pressure level. A-weighting is applied to instrument-measured ...

at .

History

Built during the Cold War era from 1952 to 1957 (second generation) by

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...

, its power plant contained a newly designed FirePower

Hemi Hemi may refer to: People Surname * Jack Hemi (1914–1996), New Zealand freezing worker, rugby union and league player, shearer * Ronald Hemi (1933–2000), New Zealand rugby union player Given name * Hemi Bawa, Indian painter and sculptor * H ...

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and us ...

with a

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

of and producing .VictorySiren.com
/ref> They are long, built atop a quarter section of a Dodge truck chassis rail, and weigh an estimated . Its six horns are each long. The siren has an output of 138

(30,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s), and can be heard as far as away. In 1952, the cost of a Chrysler Air-raid Siren was $5,500 (Equivelant of $61,851 as in December 2022).The

United States government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

helped buy sirens for selected state and county

law enforcement agencies A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws. Jurisdiction LEAs which have their ability to apply their powers restricted in some way are said to operate within a jurisdiction. LEA ...

. In

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...

, six were placed around key locations of populated areas, and another ten were sold to other government agencies in the

state of California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. These "Big Red Whistles" (as they were nicknamed) only saw testing use. Some were located so remotely that they deteriorated due to lack of maintenance. The main purpose of the siren was to warn the public in the event of a nuclear attack by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

during the Cold War. The operator's job was to start the engine and bring it up to operating speed, then to pull and release the transmission handle to start the wailing signal generation. The Chrysler Air-raid Siren produced the loudest sound ever achieved by an air raid siren.

Today

Some sirens are still located above buildings and

watchtowers A watchtower or watch tower is a type of fortification used in many parts of the world. It differs from a regular tower in that its primary use is military and from a turret in that it is usually a freestanding structure. Its main purpose is to ...

. Many are

rust Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO(OH ...

ed, and in some cases, the

salvage value ''Residual value'' is one of the constituents of a leasing calculus or operation. It describes the future value of a good in terms of absolute value in monetary terms and it is sometimes abbreviated into a percentage of the initial price when the i ...

is less than the cost to remove them. A majority have been moved to museums, and some have been restored to fully functioning condition. In Seattle's

Phinney Ridge Phinney Ridge is a neighborhood in north central Seattle, Washington, United States. It is named after the ridge which runs north and south, separating Ballard from Green Lake, from approximately N. 45th to N. 75th Street. The ridge, in turn, is ...

neighborhood, a decommissioned air raid siren remains standing as a local landmark. Since 2014, the air raid tower is decorated as a Holiday GloCone annually from Thanksgiving to New Year's.

Cities with Chrysler Sirens

References

{{Civil defense sirens Civil defense Warning systems Chrysler Aerophones Sirens