The apartment building I grew-up in had an Autocall fire alarm system. The pull stations were a simple lever that said pull down for fire alarm on it without a glass rod. They were flat and rectangular, and the horns were the grill style horns like the Simplex 4040’s, but were Autocall. The building was built in the early 70’s, and was always wondering what this system was, and how it worked. The reason being is, when someone pulled the alarm, and they were on for a period of time, the horns would start to sound like they would cut in and out. My guess was because the electrode and plate got hot. And when they shut them off, and would go re-set the pull station, they would turn them on and off several times. When I asked why they did that, I remember them saying that they had to re-energize the pull station by bringing electricity back to it. I’ve never heard of that on any system, not even the older Edwards, and Simplex systems. Does anyone know about this system, and how it works? 
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It’s a bit hard to tell without pictures.
What did you mean by an electrode and plate – a thermal switch like a car turn signal relay?
My best guess, from your description, about the horns sounding a few times before reset is how the panel is wired – I bet they had a toggle switch between the power source and the horns, and they flip it off to silence the signals, then had to flip it back on before resetting the panel.
I’ve never heard of “re-energizing the pull station” – it could have been some sort of remark to get you off their backs or something, but pull stations in zoned systems are just switches and there’s nothing else about them.
Because there were numerous Autocall non-coded systems available in the 70’s, it’s hard to guess what model the panel may have been. If you’re interested in Autocall, http://www.autocall.info/ this page has a ton of information along with company history.
The pull stations you described sound like these:
As far as the horns cutting in and out, that sounds like a malfunctioning panel.
I’ve never heard the term “re-energize” used, but on some very old single or two zone panels, there was a switch that would shut the entire system down instead of a reset or silence switch. Someone may have used that switch to silence the system, then turned it back on before the pull station was reset. But again, without having more information, it’s difficult to guess.
Are the horns still in the building or have the horns now since been replaced?
Thanx for the reply, and yes that is the pull station. It just has me curious about this one, there was a red control panel with a power light on the door, no window to see anything inside though, and there were breakers separate from the panel.
The last time I was there back in 2006, they were still in use in the buildings.
Thanx for the welcome and reply. It is the horns sound plate and the magnet behind it vibrating is what I meant. I know it all sounded weird, and I searched online for a description of this system, but the only thing I’ve found is the pull stations as someone posted a pic of below. I also know that I’ve seen the grill style horns from Faraday and Simplex before. The ones that Autocall had sounded different than the Simplex ones. It seems like they are hard to find, because Youtube has all kinds of Simplex vids. I just want to hear those again, and see what the control panel lookes like on the inside. I remember my Dad showing someone how to silence the horns. It was pressing a button, and then turning off a breaker. Being that it is an old late 1960’s system, it just looked like a lot of wires inside from what I remember. The horns cutting in and out but the magnet still vibrating but not making full contact on the plate when the horns were left on for a while, and the reset process is what I’m most curious about.