I think it is about time that such a discussion exists. besides, i have a few ideas of my own.
“Visibel” Audio-visual water motor gong:
Large fire-fighting pumphouses are usually equipped with lots of alarm check valves as well as water motor gongs. Normally, the gongs are placed side by side in a line, and when one of them goes off, it’s quite difficult to confirm which one is ringing at first sight. So I suppose that water motor gongs need to emit both visual and audible signal.
In a conventional water motor gong, the turbine drives the mallet/striker while the gong case is fixed onto the base. However, in Visibel, the gong case is turned by water turbine and the striker is spring-loaded onto the base. There are several studs inside the gong case, which will push and then release the striker while passing through it and consequently let it hit the gong and make noise. In this way, when a Visibel rings, anyone can see its gong case spinning and pinpoint the exact gong as well as valve which has been triggered.
Also, it’s easier to do maintenance work for a Visibel than a conventional water motor gong. Just by rotating the gong case for several turns by hand, a technician can verify if the striker works well, if the turbine is stuck, or if the friction is too high.
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Sorry for poor painting work.
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that is pretty clever. i never actually thought of that before.
Why not have the turbine drive a generator to power a flashing light on the bell instead? (I imagine that if you geared up the shaft leading from the generator enough that you could get enough electricity out of it to power a low-voltage light)
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