Thank you Fire Alarm Fan, I figured you would know what the alarm is but again I was very right on the older Montgomery Wards/Mastercraft units of the late 1970’s or very early 1980’s. I didn’t think they could be silenced with a broom either. I know the older alarms had high pitched squealers as my neighbour had one of these. It was so loud one time I heard it go off from her house and I had my t.v. on. My aunt also had a unit in her house that looked the same but it was a smaller unit. Never heard it go off though. It was in her townhouse which was built around 1983 or so. So Im guessing it would have had a piezo horn rather than a squealer.
Yep. They had, AFAIK 3 versions:
#1 is like the one in the movie and was based on the SA76RS/77R platform.
#2’s cover is almost the same, but it has side vents like the 79R, which it was based on (Piezo)
#3 was, AFAIK Wards’ last version, and was smaller (probably the one your aunt had) and was based on the 83R platform.
Cool. I had a feeling the one my aunt had was a piezo. Would love to find the first version of the alarm as a collectors item. Still on the lookout though. Also looking for vintage Dicon, Sears and Westclox smoke signal all from the 1970’s. I do have one vintage smoke alarm from about 1977 to 1980 but it is an AC model. I have no idea how to set it off. Even asked my landlord but he doesn’t know. It is a Nortron TR88. I can’t find any info on it online either but it does have a squealer. If you can help me Fire Alarm Fan that would be awesome. You are the smoke alarm expert. 
:). Im still on the lookout for the TR77 which is the DC version. One unique feature of the TR77/TR88 is the the test button is one the side and you slide it to test it instead of pushing it and the alarm also lights up when it sounds. Don’t know any other alarms with that kind of test button.
I was watching the old tv show “EMERGENCY” and the episode was the “Steel inferno”. I was not able to find any pictures, but there is some sort of anunciator (Maybe Notifier?) next to a bg-6 in the office building. The link has a video of the episode, and the best view is at 23:47. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqe_CYDqx7k. I would also like to note that in Rampart General Hospital, there are bg-6 pulls, one of which was featured in an episode when there was a fire in the hospital. I can’t find the episode though.
That is interesting maxshaw. I watched Emergency when I was very small and I thought even for its time it taught good fire safety lessons although I don’t think there was one episode out of the entire series that featured smoke alarms. Could be wrong though but I did find this old episode of the Canadian version of the Littlest Hobo on youtube from 1980 (Season 2 episode 3) that features the Nortron alarm that I have but I have never heard the actual differences in the sounds but I am going with the TR77 (DC version) on this one. Notice the alarm lights up when it sounds. For that time period I thought this was neat. I will try to post the video but the alarm is shown around 18:35.
blob:https%3A//www.youtube.com/7fdfb567-7650-41b6-86c6-44e3e5bf08ce
I found it. This screenshot was taken from the episode “Foreign Trade.”
LOL
OTOH, Springfield, Vermont seems to rarely have Simplex. FCi is much more popular.
In Episode 6 of the Doctor Who reboot, a Dalek breaks loose in a United States museum owned by the owner of the Internet. In a garage, about a dozen guards begin opening fire on him, to no avail. It hovers in the air and fires its beam at a nearby call point (even though this particular episode is set in the US, they filmed on a set in the UK) and all the sprinklers go off (cringe). The Dalek then fires at the wet ground, killing all the guards at once.
In two Doctor Who stories, “Last Christmas” and “Under the Lake/Before the Flood”, they had fire panels spread around the compounds. No idea what they actually were, but they really looked like Autocall TFX-400’s.
i’m not a dr who fan, but it’s a british show isn’t it?
they have completely different fire alarm brands/panels over there.
In another episode of Doctor Who (set in a school), the Doctor, Rose, Mickey, and a student are brainstorming how to evacuate the school after a Krillitane invasion. The student elbows the call point and sets the alarms off (bells on Continuous), but a Krillitane punches through the wall and tears out the wires, disabling the alarm.
Is this yesterdays?
If by yesterday you mean sometime in 2005, then yes. I’m still on Tennant, only about ten episodes since Eccleston regenerated.
Like I said, that’s what it looked the most like. It’s probably not a TFX-400, unless the panels are just props. Our signals and initiating devices look completely different than theirs, but the layman probably wouldn’t be able to discern a US panel from a UK one.
That’s how I knew right away they never left the UK for that episode. I think, in the second or so episode, Rose hits a call point to cause a distraction in a restaurant. It’s interesting how often that happens in the show, at least after the reboot…
This news story aired on WGN Chicago about a week ago, but this picture is actually a screenshot from their app on my phone. I believe that is an EST FireShield panel in the background of this shot.
I found an old VHS tape today of mine of mine when I went threw my taping shows and movies off the TV phase back in the late 1980s/early 1990s. I found a movie from 1986 called Bach and Broccoli. It is a French Canadian movie dubbed in english. There is a brief scene about midway into the movie that features a Family Gard fg888d but it makes the sound of a DC squealer instead of a piezo. Sounded like my parents old Dicon alarm. I never knew those alarms once had squealers and even for 1986 a squealer noise would be rare Im thinking. Maybe the sound of the alarm is dubbed? Either way it is interesting.
It also could have been a fg777d model. They look the same to me. Too bad Im unable to post this as it is from a VHS tape (yes Im that old. LOL!!!) I can’t find this scene on youtube.
What sounds like a 10" Simplex 4090 bell can be heard going off at the start of this commercial…
An episode of the “Fuller House” Netflix series (revival of “Full House”), “The Not-So-Great Escape,” D.J.'s son Jackson creates a diversion in his science class with Ramona (Kimmy’s daughter) so Ramona can escape; it involves causing smoke that trips a sprinkler. When it activates, what sounds like a 6" school bell is heard going off (clearly supposed to represent a fire alarm), and of course, all the other sprinklers in the room activate as well! (At least they don’t in the rest of the building.)
For fans of the original series, this is at Van Atta Middle School, where D.J. went for seventh and eighth grades!