American Signal Corporation

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American Signal Corporation is an outdoor warning siren and mass notification company in America. ASC was founded in 1942 as Biersach and Niedermeyer. Biersach and Niedermeyer wasn't receiving a lot of money on the Mobil Directro, so they reformed as The Alerting Communicators of America and manufactured a whole set of warning systems. ACA later went bankrupt and reformed as the American Signal Corporation.

History[]

The company began as Biersach and Niedermeyer Co. in 1873, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin based metal fabricating operation. After the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, concerns surfaced that the American public should be notified in the event of air attacks. The United States Department of the Army granted the company a contract to manufacture outdoor warning sirens and in 1942 the company began production of over 2000 sirens to be installed throughout the Pacific Theater for American troops and Air Bases. The need for these outdoor warnings increased during the following years as the Cold War brought a new threat of nuclear war. It came in three separate models: The BN52 and BN54, which were powered by a 25HP Wisconsin air-cooled engine, and later on the BN44E, which was instead powered by an electric motor. Most surviving BN54 models were later converted to use electric motors as the gasoline engines were not practical for normal use.

In 1967, Biersach & Niedermeyer Co., was faced with dwindling sales of their flagship Mobil Directo series due to withering competition from a wide variety of Federal Electric (known as Federal Signal) models saturating the market, split off their siren business into a new division in a bid to regain a share of sales. The company's name changed to Alerting Communicators of America (ACA) and the production of new models began, to suit the needs of individual municipalities.

Banshee, Screamer, Cyclone, Howler, and Allertor are just a few of the names under which these sirens were known. In the early 1980s, the Allertor and Hurricane sirens were discontinued, succeeded by a new lineup, known as the . This series consisted of three models, each denoting the horsepower of their motor: P-10, P-15, and P-50. The P-10 and P-15 were sold in single tone 8 or dual tone 9/12 port configurations, but the P-10 was much more commonly dual tone, due to the load of the 8 port rotor tending to place undue stress on the motor, leading to burnout. The P-50, on the other hand, shared a rotor and stator assembly with the new large omnidirectional^{[disambiguation needed]} Cyclone, and was only available in an 8/12 port configuration. Also made during this time were ACA's first electronic sirens, the Alertronic series. In 1982, the company became the first in its industry to provide a wireless digital supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system called , with over 6000 installations worldwide.

By the late 1980s, Alerting Communicators of America's golden age was at an end. With dwindling interest in electromechanical sirens, and skepticism over the then-new idea of electronic sirens, sales slowed. Over a five year period from 1989 to 1994, the Banshee, Screamer, Alertronic series, and Cyclone were all discontinued, while only three new models entered production: the PN-20, considered to be part of the Penetrator series, and battery backup versions of the P-15 and Banshee, known as Performance Plus. These were the last hurrahs for ACA. Their parent company, , went bankrupt in November 1992, and was forced to sell ACA to Hörmann GmbH, who soon reorganized the company as American Signal Corporation. Then Hörmann GmbH were also selling their ECN/ECI sirens through ASC's market.

Over the decade, the prominent advancements the company made in its siren's designs included battery operation, high powered Voice/Sirens and indoor alerting systems. Similarly designed sirens were still manufactured, but under new names, such as the Tempest series. As of 2021, ASC is still in operation and supplies many towns and cities in the U.S. with outdoor warning sirens, most of which are now used to warn the public of threats such as tsunamis, severe weather, chemical spills and civil emergencies.

Early production siren models[]

Original siren from early production (1940's-1960's):

• ( brand): BN52 (Gasoline), BN54 (Gasoline), BN44E (Electric)

Sirens from the 1960s until the 1980s:

Play media

Watch an Allertor in the alert and attack cycle.

• ACA Hurricane 130 (All have been removed and scrapped, except for a single example in private possession)
• ACA Hurricane MKII-130 (Only one example remains in service in Milwaukee, WI, the rest scrapped or in private possession)
• (Ranging from 2 HP to 10 HP)
• 110
• ACA Banshee 115, (also known as the Super Banshee)
• (Extinct, no known examples still exist)
• ACA Cyclone 120
• ACA Cyclone 125 (Some equipped with dampers)

Sirens in production during the 1980s until the early 1990s:

Play media

Watch a Penetrator-15 in the alert and attack cycle.

Head Shot of A P-50 The Small Tube is the air intake the "fluting" around the bottom of the chopper is the air exit.

A Pole Mounted ACA P-50 in The colony TX.

• ACA P-10
• ACA P-15
• ACA PN-20
• ACA P-50
• ACA Howler
• AL-6000
• ACA Alertronic AL-5000 (Extinct)
• ACA Alertronic AL-4000

Sirens made after going bankrupt (1992 and onward)[]

After going bankrupt in November 1992 and being sold to a new owner, the company changed its name and the name of its sirens in production.

Sirens built from 1992 onward:

• RM-130
• T-135
• OM-117
• OM-120
• RE-1600

Current mechanical sirens[]

Tempest siren line is the current mechanical siren line.

• ASC T-112
• ASC T-121
• ASC T-128
• ASC T-135-AC/DC

Current electronic sirens[]

These are the electronic speaker array sirens produced by the company.

• E-Class Public Address Speaker Array
• iForce Modular Array
• Clarity Modular Array

References[]