My new Gamewell century m46-28 and Thorn/Electro vox Fm 950








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Interesting how that FM950-E is branded Thorn on the front but has a sticker marked “Electro Vox” on the back, especially since so little is known about the latter (I wonder if that label would help with learning more about Electro Vox).

That M46-28 is in practically brand-new condition: amazing!

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Thank you!. If you want to buy one like me here is the link: 7 Gamewell Century M46 Fire Alarm Pull Station Conventional for sale online | eBay

As i think. Electro vox was a Canadian company.

Sure thing! Centuries I can get anytime anywhere: an FM950-E like that not so much though.

That’s what some people speculate, but there’s no confirmation that they were.

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That century is in beautiful condition

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Thank you man!!. When I bought it i thought the same thing!!. I never knew it was gonna be in such good condition.

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Centuries are getting rarer and rarer as the years go by; back 20,30,40 years ago they were easy to come by but not anymore

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Maybe but it seems like there are still plenty of listings for them on Ebay these days (good luck with trying to find a “LOCAL ALARM” model like I happened to once though: those are the rare Centuries for sure).

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I love the Thorn FM950! These pull stations were rebranded by countless companies in Canada, but I don’t think Thorn-branded versions were sold here.

I think most FM950s featured Electro Vox labels on the back. Both of my Simplex-branded models have the same stickers, but my Honeywell-branded model doesn’t (and there is no residue suggesting that it ever had such a label). I’ve seen a photo of another collector’s Cerberus Pyrotronics-branded version which also features this type of label on the back. I’ve never been able to decipher the text (with the exception of the model number) on these labels.

Later variants of the FM950 had a similar label, but the name listed was “Electro Digital”. I don’t know how Electro Vox and Electro Digital were related; the only thing I’ve been able to confirm is that they had the same address.

Electro Vox was indeed based in Canada; their main facility appears to have been in Montréal. Here’s an excerpt from a 1988 ad showing their address (which matches the one listed in the Canadian trademarks database):

There seems to be a dearth of information about this company’s history online—their address is pretty much the only thing I’ve been able to confirm reliably. I’d love to learn more about their history.

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You don’t suppose that means Electro Vox is the original maker of that station do you?

That’s me as well with a lot of device labels (including most annoyingly Simplex date codes: do they not think someone’s going to need to know what they mean?).

Hmm…very interesting, never knew Electro Vox had either a division or an alternate name (might be what they later rebranded themselves as given you say that appears on later FM950-Es: “Vox” might have started looking outdated when they did which might be a reason for the possible name change).

Oh, okay: that’s that mystery solved at least.

Yeah. Just now I found a bunch of pages supposedly related to the company however so I might make a post dedicated to Electro Vox in order to not fill up this one with irrelevant dicussion.

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Thank you. I knew electro vox had something to do with Canada.

While I can’t find evidence proving that they originally introduced this design, I haven’t seen anything so far that leads me to believe the contrary.

I’d be interested in seeing what you found! I’ve come across some interesting bits and pieces over the years, but I haven’t found any information establishing a clear picture of their history.

Well how about that…

It’s mainly just pages I found via searching “electro vox”/“electro vox inc” on Google: none of it may actually tell us anything more than what we already know (other than they were also in the intercom business too).

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