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Whistles

6K views 24 replies 10 participants last post by  Victor J. Croasdale 
#1 ·
Recently I have gotten obsessed with Steam whistles. I want to try and make a down scaled Triple Chime whistle (Normandie's whistle) and i'm wondering if any of you have plans for one? Thanks!
 
#2 · (Edited)
The Canberra steam whistle is here: http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/showthread.php?t=45954

I recorded it in 1972 when we were leaving Hong Kong when she still had a steram whistle. The tape goes on a bit all the way to the airport, but going astern she blows three times, which is really impressive!

I had just bought a stereo system in Yokohama so dangled the two microphones out of my cabin window in my Crew & Isolation Hospital on C Deck aft. You also here all the other noises of a ship leaving port gun port doors being closed as well as the tugs.
 
#4 ·
I thought at first glance you were talking about a pocket whistle. We carried them in Ellermans. One peep for the Bridge Boy, Two for the QM and Three for an Apprentice! At least I think that was the order. On your whistles, reattaching the whistle wires to the Bridge fell to the Apprentices on sailing and always a sense of power when time came to test it.
 
#6 ·
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#11 ·
John

No need to leave once you join. Cruises and Cruising is not only about cruising. I cover port and ship web cams meaning you see other ships. In fact, it can be very frustrating because although I can find the name of a cargo ships or whatever on AIS, naval ships do not show, so I have no idea. Therefore, it would be handy if naval experts were members of Cruises & Cruising. I also cover weather all over the world from hurricanes to cyclones, and again affecting all shipping, not just cruise ships. Sadly, the Cruises & Cruising title is misunderstood.
 
#10 ·
Cruises & Cruising is easy to join. Just follow this link: http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/profile.php?do=editusergroups

Any problems please let me know, but once joined click on the link I provided in #2 and you will hear the Canberra Steam Whistle as well as other noises as she left Hong Kong such as bagpipes playing on the quay, gunport doors being closed, the swishing of the ropes, and the engines and whistles of the tugs pulling us out, so you hear all the noises of a passenger liner leaving port including the wonderful deep sound of her steam whistle. It is worth joining Cruises & Cruising just to hear that (Thumb)
 
#14 ·
Thanks David.
Most spectacular.

One question that one of the good SN Members may be able to answer:

On a large passenger vessel how was a steam whistle remotely controlled. On some smaller/older (?) vessels I have seen a physical cable connection between the bridge and the whistle valve but how was/is this done on a large vessel such as a liner? I imagine that with a steam whistle there would be an initial shower of dirty water before steam entered the actual whistle?

In this day and age are 'whistles' air or electric operated, please?

Geoff (YM)
 
#13 ·
We have a very nice brass steam whistle as a door stop at th front door. I found it sticking out of a rubbish heap in Mossel Bay port. I was relieving there as the one and only Pilot had had a heart attack. It cleaned up0 and polished up well. It was probably off one of the old steam trawlers of I and J that were based there. Unfortunately there are no identification marks or numbers. If they were there they have been polished off.
 
#17 ·
As a Radio Officer on Canberra, I can certainly verify the effectiveness of the steam whistle as it was pointed at the Forward accommodation block -- it was so loud that the bridge would make broadcast over the PA warning pax on the open decks that it would be sounded. Probably just as well or Pompeyfan would have been picking up the heart attack victims every time it sounded
 
#19 ·
Steam or compressed air is the same. If the pressure is the same then the sound will be same. Example, RMS QUEEN MARY in Long Beach, the two Tyfon horns on the forward funnel were steam originally. They are operated several times a day and they are air operated. The QUEEN MARY 2 has one of the original horns from the old QUEEN MARY. She also has a replica of the horn on the funnel as well. As far as I know, the horns on QM2 are air operated but they have a small steam generator that blows WITH the compresses air. It does not sound the same as the horns on QUEEN MARY. I suspect the pressure is not same as it should.

The old steam CHAUNCEY M DEPEW in Bermuda had a great steam whistle. She went off to sold abroad but the whistle was left behind. Some years later the skipper on CANIMA rigged up the CHAUNCEY whistle and used to blow it once in a while, on compressed air. The sound was the same.

Stephen
 
#20 · (Edited)
Thanks David, Bob, FJ and Stephen.
Interesting that a warning was broadcast before use of the whistle. We have a similar situation in the rail industry where the use of detonators is almost extinct in case it scares the fairies. No matter that their use may well save someone's life.
I have always been under the IMPRESSION that a whistle blown with steam will give a different sound than the same whistle blown with air but have no factual basis for that impression.
These days one is unlikely to be able put that impression to the test.
We did put a steam loco whistle on a diesel loco 50 odd years ago but by the very nature of the steam unit being a 'whistle' rather than a 'horn' it pretty much drained the loco's main reservoir air in an instant. (This, of course, should have been obvious from the start.)(Whaaa)
Geoff (YM)(Wave)
 
#23 · (Edited)
Hi YM-Mundrabilla,
The notes of a whistle on air and on steam will be different.
The fundamental wavelength of the sound will be a mix of integer fractions of the the whistle's length. Frequency x wavelength = sonic velocity. The sonic velocity of air and steam are different. The speed of sound of 20 deg C air is about 345 m/s and is roughly proportional to the the square root of the absolute temperature. (it is proportional for an ideal gas and equals the square root of Gamma x R x T/M) The speed of sound in steam varies with both the temperature and the pressure. The fundamental frequency will be different and the mix of harmonics will be different.
 
#24 ·
Thanks Victor.
Much appreciated - so I didn't imagine it.
In all matters steam it seems that compressed air is a poor but, these days, often necessity. Certainly better than nothing!
Thanks again.
Geoff (YM) (Wave)
 
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