As a young lad from Scotland I'd be taken on holiday to Whitby in the 70's. I remember listening to this in the dead of night in thick fog. I'll never forget that sound.
Best of luck and thanks for the video! We, from the States, were there in 1987 and have always bragged about what a wonderful area you have with such wonderful people.
I remember this sound from approximately 1982, in a caravan with a fake copper chimney nearby, I was about 3 years old and it scared the shit out of me lol!
I remember both this horn and the one at Flamborough as a child growing up... the noise up close was deafening, you could feel your lungs resonate. From a distance when really thick fog it was a haunting yet comforting sound and yes every 90 seconds. It was a big shame when the Flamborough Horn (Known as "Big Bertha" locally) was changed into a high pitched signal... that changed the whole feeling of a foggy day for me.
Its a fog siren not a horn. a horn doesn't sound like this siren as a horn has a diaphragm like a diaphone not a rotor stator with ports. The only similarity is it runs by air but may have been steam driven
@LighthousesUK It did in the early days, but this was replaced by a horn similar to Mad Bull - the Flamborough Horn was two blasts every 90 seconds.... I believe the gun was fired up until the very early 70's although I am searching the history books to confirm this....
I remember walking from Robin Hood's bay to Whitby with my scout troop when I was a kid (early 80's). It was a foggy day and the fog horn was running. We got as close as we could and sat therefor a while while it did it's stuff. Good memory ! Scary though.
As I recall exactly the same, twice every 90 seconds - it changed in the early eighties to the high pitched version as heard along the south coast currently. Happy memories of growing up.
The horn sounds a bit creepy. It also sounds not too dissimilar to a cow mooing. There is another clearer recording uploaded by SFX Frenzy, and the horn's pitch lowers quite a bit at the start of each blast (even more than in this video), which sounds even creepier and also a bit weird. Probably a good thing that it is no longer in use and has been replaced by a less scary electronic foghorn.
It did sound like a cow- hense its nickname. This was the only siren with a Raleigh's trumpet I knew where the tone lowered at the end of the blast (siren spinning slows down). Even more creepy when in thick fog, limiting vision and hearing echo's.
@@hellooldchap thanks for calling it a siren. I have said that to people that its a siren because it sounds like a mad bull. A syper typhon couldnt make the sound of an angry bull or cow like this siren. Its very unique as you say that it ramps up then comes slowly down like a mooo and not a hoot like a large freight ship horn
@@jezcolborne6329 I personally wouldn't hesitate to call it just a 'horn' and not a 'siren'. I don't think using the 'horn' term for this 'siren' would be incorrect. Technically this may be a 'siren', as it uses the same mechanism (i.e rotor-stator) as a mechanical warning siren, but in general terms it is called a 'horn'. Do anyone not call diaphones horns? Then why would they not do the same for 'sirens'? Not bashing you that you should call it only a horn and not at all a siren; I still leave what to call it to you. Both terms are correct, but I don't think one term should be used instead of the other.
@@abdullaharif6455 i dont call it a horn. A diaphone is a horn of sorts but a siren not so. The sound comes out of the big trumpets or horns but a horn cant make the same sound like a diaphone or siren. The diaphone has a resonator witch is the horn just like some sirens like longstone lighthouse has. It now has an electtonic high pitched horn infront of the sirens resonating horns i wish the old fog sirens and diaphones where still operating but no they have had their voices stolen away from them and just sit there. The only true horns are the battle horns used way before so called fog horns. Then steam horns and hooters and the super typhon air horns. Those are all horns. Fog sirens are not horns but diapjones are a type of horn
If those horns still have the diaphragms............... All you need is a powerful compressor, air reservoir & a valve. You could get the specs from Trinity House. It would make an excellent doorbell substitute as well as making callers involuntarily manure your flower beds. Even if you were in Scarborough for the day you'd know you'd had callers.........
This is a fog siren which ramps up like the modern civil defense sirens but is 100 times larger with a big air powered stator rotor so it doesn't have diaphragm's in the Horns its just a huge siren that was used to warn of fog
diaphragms will still be installed, i would think they would be brass or copper disks, so will last forever! getting enough compressed air would be the biggest problem, even a modest horn CHEWS through the stuff, so these beasts would be mighty hungry for the stuff!
This horn does not have diaphragms, it does not work this way. It uses a spinning rotor with slots giving quick bursts of air through a stationary stator with identical slots to produce sound. This is the same way that a mechanical warning/air-raid siren makes its noise.
@@skumuk3876 no it's a siren as it ramps up like an air raid siren but instead of it ramping down it stays on the same high note then abruptly stops because of air pressure in the rotating drums ports then douse another blast ramping up. Long higher note then off again
@@skumuk3876 if you listen to the vid it is a fog siren. It has horns too let the sound out but the thing that makes the noise is a rotating chopper with very high pressure air passing through the holes
As a young lad from Scotland I'd be taken on holiday to Whitby in the 70's. I remember listening to this in the dead of night in thick fog. I'll never forget that sound.
Best of luck and thanks for the video! We, from the States, were there in 1987 and have always bragged about what a wonderful area you have with such wonderful people.
I remember this sound from approximately 1982, in a caravan with a fake copper chimney nearby, I was about 3 years old and it scared the shit out of me lol!
Was in a caravan very early one morning when I was about 6 when I first heard it. It fell silent a year later. Some sounds you remember.
I remember both this horn and the one at Flamborough as a child growing up... the noise up close was deafening, you could feel your lungs resonate. From a distance when really thick fog it was a haunting yet comforting sound and yes every 90 seconds. It was a big shame when the Flamborough Horn (Known as "Big Bertha" locally) was changed into a high pitched signal... that changed the whole feeling of a foggy day for me.
Its a fog siren not a horn. a horn doesn't sound like this siren as a horn has a diaphragm like a diaphone not a rotor stator with ports. The only similarity is it runs by air but may have been steam driven
I can well remember being kept awake all night when staying at a guest house in Whitney in 1981....
@LighthousesUK It did in the early days, but this was replaced by a horn similar to Mad Bull - the Flamborough Horn was two blasts every 90 seconds.... I believe the gun was fired up until the very early 70's although I am searching the history books to confirm this....
I don't know why this video from 2007 was recommended to me but I am glad it is
I remember walking from Robin Hood's bay to Whitby with my scout troop when I was a kid (early 80's). It was a foggy day and the fog horn was running. We got as close as we could and sat therefor a while while it did it's stuff. Good memory ! Scary though.
Nash point also has that but higher pitch
As I recall exactly the same, twice every 90 seconds - it changed in the early eighties to the high pitched version as heard along the south coast currently. Happy memories of growing up.
The horn sounds a bit creepy. It also sounds not too dissimilar to a cow mooing. There is another clearer recording uploaded by SFX Frenzy, and the horn's pitch lowers quite a bit at the start of each blast (even more than in this video), which sounds even creepier and also a bit weird.
Probably a good thing that it is no longer in use and has been replaced by a less scary electronic foghorn.
It did sound like a cow- hense its nickname. This was the only siren with a Raleigh's trumpet I knew where the tone lowered at the end of the blast (siren spinning slows down). Even more creepy when in thick fog, limiting vision and hearing echo's.
@@hellooldchap thanks for calling it a siren. I have said that to people that its a siren because it sounds like a mad bull. A syper typhon couldnt make the sound of an angry bull or cow like this siren. Its very unique as you say that it ramps up then comes slowly down like a mooo and not a hoot like a large freight ship horn
@@jezcolborne6329 I personally wouldn't hesitate to call it just a 'horn' and not a 'siren'. I don't think using the 'horn' term for this 'siren' would be incorrect. Technically this may be a 'siren', as it uses the same mechanism (i.e rotor-stator) as a mechanical warning siren, but in general terms it is called a 'horn'. Do anyone not call diaphones horns? Then why would they not do the same for 'sirens'? Not bashing you that you should call it only a horn and not at all a siren; I still leave what to call it to you. Both terms are correct, but I don't think one term should be used instead of the other.
These days they are simply 'hazard signals'.
@@abdullaharif6455 i dont call it a horn. A diaphone is a horn of sorts but a siren not so. The sound comes out of the big trumpets or horns but a horn cant make the same sound like a diaphone or siren. The diaphone has a resonator witch is the horn just like some sirens like longstone lighthouse has. It now has an electtonic high pitched horn infront of the sirens resonating horns i wish the old fog sirens and diaphones where still operating but no they have had their voices stolen away from them and just sit there. The only true horns are the battle horns used way before so called fog horns. Then steam horns and hooters and the super typhon air horns. Those are all horns. Fog sirens are not horns but diapjones are a type of horn
Very nice! Very interesting design around the lantern.
Wonderful! Thanks so much!
i found a picture of rayleighs trumpet, but i can not post the link on youtube...it wont let me!
I was looking for this one. Used to be on a static picture video called "scary fog horn"
The foghorn and it's buildings (Indoor swimming pool & sauna!)are now for sale
Is the foghorn still intact?
Yes
@hellooldchap A cow actually died as a result of the fog horn sounding?
Where is the fog horn that serves Whitby now? I haven't herd it running much over the winter.
Its a fog SIREN not a horn
Thats interesting. do they fuel those horns with steam, or compressed air..
No. Its compressed air and it's not a horn it's a siren just like nash point
@Taojac -I agree. Portland Bill Lighthouse foghorn ROCKS!!!
Coming in at a close second-Low Head Lighthouse. Now that's a seroius foghorn!
@@DaniaDenise both where diaphone horns
Danse Macabre
Flamborough had a fog gun didnt it?
@@LighthousesUK yes then rockets then a siren then a tanoy. Now they use a shrill beep instead of the mighty roar
when your in a certain place out at sea it shines red to indicate DANGER LOL
That actually sounds quite foreboding.
0:59 sounds more like a cow than a horn 🐄📣🤣
dutch lady..
@lusudan2670: That's its defining characteristic, the Siren sounds like a mooing cow.
it sounds like a dying cow
sorry guys and gals but portland bill lighthouse is by far the best sounding lighthouse
👍👍
sounds like a mad bull
If those horns still have the diaphragms...............
All you need is a powerful compressor, air reservoir & a valve.
You could get the specs from Trinity House.
It would make an excellent doorbell substitute as well as making callers involuntarily manure your flower beds.
Even if you were in Scarborough for the day you'd know you'd had callers.........
This is a fog siren which ramps up like the modern civil defense sirens but is 100 times larger with a big air powered stator rotor so it doesn't have diaphragm's in the Horns its just a huge siren that was used to warn of fog
diaphragms will still be installed, i would think they would be brass or copper disks, so will last forever! getting enough compressed air would be the biggest problem, even a modest horn CHEWS through the stuff, so these beasts would be mighty hungry for the stuff!
@@bungle6668 no. Its a siren
This horn does not have diaphragms, it does not work this way. It uses a spinning rotor with slots giving quick bursts of air through a stationary stator with identical slots to produce sound. This is the same way that a mechanical warning/air-raid siren makes its noise.
@@jezcolborne6329Perhaps the warning siren like rotor-stator could be removed and replaced with a diaphragm.
It's a siren not a horn
@@skumuk3876 no it's a siren as it ramps up like an air raid siren but instead of it ramping down it stays on the same high note then abruptly stops because of air pressure in the rotating drums ports then douse another blast ramping up. Long higher note then off again
@@skumuk3876 if you listen to the vid it is a fog siren. It has horns too let the sound out but the thing that makes the noise is a rotating chopper with very high pressure air passing through the holes
Sounds like the gattlin gun sound effect from gundam.
Not even in the top 200 foghorns sadly.
This sound tastes of Beef Borginion, and smells like wet dog (musty), to me!
Synesthesia?
Grrrrrr
Its pretty annoying