I took a closer look and the model number is HSVT-27. My dad now manages this building, so I’m hoping he might be able to track down a few in an electrical shop or somewhere. First alarm I’ve seen in a while that I didn’t already have or know where to buy!
There’s actually a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqzR6wkMKFk video of the system going off that I’m fairly certain was taken in this building. I knew I recognized those DirecTone speaker/strobes from somewhere - someone posted it on this site a long time ago.
I just watched that video, and you may be right about it being that building near you…I thought the voice on the speaker had a bit of a Pittsburgh accent.
No, the Federal Signal DirecTone is the original UL-listed speaker for fire protection and has been rebranded by many others including Simplex. They came out around 1973 alongside the first Autocall VECP. Federal Signal owned Autocall at the time, so it’s safe to say that both companies pioneered voice evacuation together.
I’ll see what I can do. I don’t know how lucky I’ll be since Simplex probably tossed the ones they replaced and all the building’s electricians are contracted out, but it never hurts to try.
Yeah, that video was definitely taken in Pittsburgh since the (former) Mellon Arena is mentioned. This building is affiliated with the bank of the same name, though it isn’t really that close to where the arena was. It could perhaps be one of the other buildings my dad manages if they used to have the same system.
I once saw a WHITE Edwards 874 adaptahorn with the Edwards logo painted red in a 1880s building. I also saw a masterbox that had a SIMPLEX 4 inch bell instead of the usual.
Here’s a unique one I saw on an eBay listing. It’s called Silentone and is designed for use in animal housing areas. It runs on 10-24V DC and uses a frequency between 430 and 470Hz. tone. I’m not sure of how it does it, probably a speaker.
I remember those. Years ago we had to supply some of those in a university research lab job. The specification for the audible signals was “will not disrupt the reproductive cycle of mice and rats.” Their experiments required successive generations of the animals so they needed them to do what nature intended on schedule.
That tone is now digitized in the collection of tones for Simplex 4100 systems. Mouse tone.