Hand crank siren

About the sound

The sound of a hand cranked siren. This machine has a handle on the top which has a dual purpose: it helps to carry the unit, and turning this handle whilst cranking the siren, closes an opening thereby suppressing the sound and creating a varying sound - possibly to indicate (by the form of oscillation) the type of raid, i.e. bomb or gas.

The hand crank siren on the recording was used by one of the volunteer firefighter departments within Vrhnika Firefighter Association. There’s no data available about its origin but based on the ROD lettering it is considered to be German and manufactured during WWII to warn against air raids. In Slovenia, sirens like these were distributed to every village within the German occupied territory. After the war they were used to indicate other types of immediate danger, for instance fires within factories, or within firefighting departments, etc.

Sound recordist: Boštjan Troha
Photographer: Irena Marušič
Video recordist: Irena Marušič