Hand-cranked air-raid sirens - questions...

[Shangas]

Hello folks. Anyone keeping up with my thread in the steamer trunk will know that I am currently antiquing my way around the Peoples Republic of China. Today, I visited the largest antiques and flea market inpeking, and came away with a vintage, green-painted steel hand-crank folding air-raid siren. I have tried to do some research, but have come up blank as to results.

I would like to know the possible age for a siren like this. It does not come with any markings at all. It is green, circular with a two piece folding handle. At the back is a folding crank handle. Once set up, the siren is held in the left hand, and cranked with the right. There is a spring toggle on the side of the siren which may be pressed doown with a finger on the left hand. Doing thesis while cranking the handle makes the sound louder and draws in more air.

I would love to attach pictures, but I am typing this entry on an iPad, so am not able to do so.

In short, I would like to know the possible age-range for a siren such ad I have described. So far as I can figure, this is the real deal, and not some sort of reproduction. It also came with its original cloth shoulder-pouch - in army green, like the siren.

 

[Smithy]

Shangas pleased you're having fun on your travels.

Those hand-cranked air raid sirens are usually anything from the early 1930s up to the late 1940s/early 1950s. Yours could be anywhere from the period of the Japanese invasion and right up until the Korean War.

HTH in some small way.

 

[Shangas]

Shangas pleased you're having fun on your travels.

Those hand-cranked air raid sirens are usually anything from the early 1930s up to the late 1940s/early 1950s. Yours could be anywhere from the period of the Japanese invasion and right up until the Korean War.

HTH in some small way.

Hi smithy, thanks for the information. It is much as I suspected. Did styles of these sirens change much in the twenty or thirty years that they we're insure? I suspect not, huh? This one looks like it was fairly well-used, which I suspect, would make it older, around WWII, civil-war era.

 

[Shangas]

I have done more research, and found near-identical sirens on eBay, in better and worse shape than mine. All with folding handles and the same style of front. Their sellers all ID them as being from China during the Japanese occupation (1937-1945), and belonging to either the IJA - Imperial Japanese Army, or the NRA, Chinese National Revolutionary Army. So this thing could be Japanese, and as old as 77 years. That sounds like the most likely scenario.

 

[Smithy]

I have done more research, and found near-identical sirens on eBay, in better and worse shape than mine. All with folding handles and the same style of front. Their sellers all ID them as being from China during the Japanese occupation (1937-1945), and belonging to either the IJA - Imperial Japanese Army, or the NRA, Chinese National Revolutionary Army. So this thing could be Japanese, and as old as 77 years. That sounds like the most likely scenario.

That sounds about right Shangas. They were commonly used at airbases, supply depots, etc.

They make a hell of a racket. If you crank it up by an old folks home you'll have half the old dears in a complete flap thinking the invasion has finally started!

 

[Shangas]

Hahaha!! I used to joke about doing just that, with a friend of mine! Now, I could do it for real! But I shan't. It is a beautiful siren, though. Once I am back on my own computer, I shall post pictures of it. And yes, they do make a hell of a racket. I let it rip at the flea market where I bought it from an antiques seller. I think everyone in Peking heard it!! Hahahaha!!!

 

[Shangas]

As promised, here is the siren. I'm fully aware that it may be a reproduction (the screws look a bit too new to me), but either way, it's damn cool! And it sounds and looks the part, which is the important thing.

I can't wait to take it to a meeting next week that I'm having with friends, so that I can show it to them (and let them hear it!!)

Here is the pouch:

Fresh out of the bag:

Handle unfolded:

Crank in place:

Ready to Roll: