Sentry Siren, formerly known as Sterling Siren, is a
civil defense siren
A civil defense siren, also known as an air-raid siren or tornado siren, is a siren used to provide an emergency population warning to the general population of approaching danger. It is sometimes sounded again to indicate the danger has pas ...
brand.
History
Sentry Siren was founded as the Interstate Machine Products Company of
Rochester, New York
Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...
in the very early 20th century. The company would later rename itself to the Sterling Siren and Fire Alarm Company in 1925. The company began producing sirens in 1902, producing small scale vehicular sirens, before beginning large scale siren production with the Model M series of sirens beginning in 1912, designed by Merton C. Armstrong. The Model M was used in
fire warning, air-raid warning, and disaster warning and ended production in the 1980s to make way for a new line of sirens. The units were noted for their durability; a 1917 Model M siren is still in use today by the
Manchester, Michigan
Manchester is a village in Manchester Township within Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,037 at the 2020 census.
History Chicago Road
In 1824 the United States Congress passed the General Survey Act, intended t ...
Fire Department.
[ Today, Model M units are considered collectibles by siren enthusiasts, due to rising rarity and simplicity to restore. Some other products that Sterling Siren produced were the "Little Giant", and the "VX-Series".
In addition to civil defense sirens, Sterling manufactured fire truck and small industrial sirens, police call boxes, and even for a short time, ]washing machine
A washing machine (laundry machine, clothes washer, washer, or simply wash) is a home appliance used to wash laundry. The term is mostly applied to machines that use water as opposed to dry cleaning (which uses alternative cleaning fluids and ...
s.
In 1972, Sterling Siren went out of business and its siren designs were purchased by another company, which became Sentry Siren, based out of Canon City, Colorado.[
]
In June 2020, the company relocated once more to a new production facility in Penrose, Colorado
Penrose is a census-designated place (CDP) and post office located in and governed by Fremont County, Colorado, United States. The CDP is a part of the Cañon City, CO Micropolitan Statistical Area. The Penrose post office has the ZIP Code 812 ...
. The new production facility was built to increase office and manufacturing space for the growing company.[
]
See also
* Civil defense siren
A civil defense siren, also known as an air-raid siren or tornado siren, is a siren used to provide an emergency population warning to the general population of approaching danger. It is sometimes sounded again to indicate the danger has pas ...
* Civil defense
Civil defense ( en, region=gb, civil defence) or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state (generally non-combatants) from man-made and natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, miti ...
* Siren (noisemaker)
A siren is a loud noise-making device. Civil defense sirens are mounted in fixed locations and used to warn of natural disasters or attacks. Sirens are used on emergency service vehicles such as ambulances, police cars, and fire engines. The ...
References
External links
Wayback Machine - Sentry Siren in 1998
{{Civil defense sirens
Sirens
Civil defense