Hello everyone, New to the site, however I am a long time alarm enthusiast. Glad to be able to finally find a forum where I can discuss alarms with other enthusiasts!
Moving on, I am from the Detroit area and we have a company up here called National Time and Signal, they are based out of Wixom, MI. They specialize in Fire Alarm Systems (obviously) and Master Clocks. Although all of their notification appliances are now Gentex products, (They formally used Faraday products) all of their control panels are original design.
My question is: do any other enthusiasts in other states know if any buildings using their products? I’m curious to see how much of the market they have in the U.S.
Please please please post pictures if you can!
All of National Time and Signal Corporation’s products can be viewed at www.natsco.net in case you were curious!
Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ve seen any new Natsco systems “in the wild” but I have seen older Natsco mechanical horns (some of the collectors here have some pretty old stuff!).
Texas and Oklahoma tend to stick with Simplex or the Honeywell brands, with a bit of Siemens thrown in the mix as well; but that doesn’t mean they aren’t out there. I’ve just yet to see them.
I assume you are talking about the model 411/411F horn? Those are nightmarishly loud. Proud to say I own both the the standard and flush mount versions as I am an avid fan of their products, however it is my least favorite to set off! Still haven’t been able to get my hands on one of their control panels though, EXTREMELY HARD to come by those.
Welcome to TFP. I have a lot of National Time stuff in my collection, but I have never seen it in the field. I doubt they ever had any presence around here. I think every one of their products I own came from someone in Michigan. I rarely ever see them on ebay from anyone outside that state.
Just looking at their site, looks like their only fire alarm presence is in Michigan. Doesn’t mean they don’t have distributors elsewhere though, I’m not sure what their business model is. I’d also assume the focus on the k-12 market and package fire alarms with clock systems when selling them, since clocks are their bread and butter.
Chris you are definitely correct about the schools. Up here almost EVERY school district within 150 miles has both their clocks and fire alarms. It’s a rarity actually to have anything else…
I’m sure this is no longer the case, but National Time appears to have been active in Canada in the past. I was recently using the See Inside feature on Google Maps for a building in Toronto, and I happened to notice this National Time pull station (pictured below). I was very surprised, as I had never heard of this company being active around here. The company’s presence must have been miniscule north of the border.
Also, I have an old National Time panel in my collection (purchased from an eBay seller in Michigan, unsurprisingly); let me know if you’d be interested in seeing photos, and I’ll gladly post a detailed album of this panel.
Thanks! I bought it on eBay in early 2009 for a cheap price. It’s definitely a cool piece to have in my collection, especially considering its nice condition.
See them all over in Macomb county Michigan. Old Emerald Theater in Mount Clemens at one point had NT 641 Tbars. Those are still around in a few places but they are very rare, especially for sale. Most every building in my area (MI) has National time commander 3 and rebranded tbar (Simplex/Ademco/Bosch). I own a 641 tbar, 411 horn, and Wsf-w strobe (Cerberus pyrotronics rebrand) I got the tbar and strobe from local sellers but the horn came from eBay. I bought that up right away. I’ve been a collector for about ten years and I’ve barely ever seen their older stuff online .
In Canada they were somewhat around. I am near a school that has the exact same T-bar that Samuel posted. The school also has these very, very old and rare horns, which I think are also National Time & Signal.
