Fulton Automobile exhaust whistle

[Gregory C. Korner DSr.]

This is my brothers car whistle which he insists is a steam whistle, I say it is for automobile exhaust. 

There are no makings of any kind on the whistle. So it is not a Fulton whistle but it has the lever activated  butterfly which goes tn the exhaust pipe to control the exhaust.

 It has a cast brass base with 5) 1 inch diameter  silver plated brass  tubes, respectively 19-3/4 ", 14-1/4" , 11-3/8" , 9-1/4" , 7-1/4" long .The picture should have been rotated to see the full length of the whistle.

 I have an 1-1/2 scale that I designed and scratch built , starting in 1964 and had her running by 1969. Her name is "JENNY" after my late wife. She has a boiler which operates at 120 PSI and weighs about 415 pounds , engine and tender. She is fired with coal and I've had 5 cars with 20 people behind her, no problem pulling. 

 Now I have built every piece of the engine by hand and I know a little more aboutsteam than my hard headed brother so I say this whistle he has is not a steam whistle it is for a  automobile exhaust,

The opening for steam is usually about 15 thousandths  and not large v shaped openings like this whistle has.

If any of you folks out there are familiar with this kind of whistle, save me some work and send me back the scoop. My brothers wants me to remake the inserts in the base of the whistle and I refused to waste my time trying to fix something that isn't broke!

 Respectfully submitted,

 Gregory C. Korner Sr.

lookoutmntrr@hughes.net

[DFeeney]

I would be surprised if a exhaust system had the  pressure and rate of flow to work the whistle. I would stick with steam.  I will follow this and perhaps learn something.  

[Gregory C. Korner DSr.]

I think that it will work. I hooked it up to the exhaust off my 4 cylinder 1957 Case "300" tractor and it works, not like it would on steam  , but it works. The biggest problem with using the engine exhaust is the notse the engine makes overcomes the sound of the whistle at high RPM. Also you get the pulses of the cylinders firing . I think the design of the openings indicate it is for engine exhaust. I f you check out Fulton's web site , there are a lot of these whistles for sale. Someone out there will have the answer to the question of whether this is a steam or exhaust whistle.

[Mark Wetherbee]

Well. 5 tubes is a pretty big one, but I had a 4 tube one on a mid 20’s Studebaker and it had more than enough exhaust to make people take notice. Put that puppy on an 8 cylinder and it would be loud. The hard part is finding the right exhaust cutout valve for it.

[lump]

For many years my parents had a 4-tube exhaust whistle on our 4 cylinder 1923 Hupmobile. It sounded great, when the car was rolling at 40-55 mph. In fact, many other car club members on tours with us would start looking around for a train, whenever Dad kicked in his whistle...especially those folks who weren't close enough to realize that the sound was coming from our Hupp.  But at low engine speed the sound wasn't much. I have that same whistle plus another that I found at a yard sale, and plan to reinstall one of them "someday." 

[Gregory C. Korner DSr.]

Hello Lump,

 Glad to meet you. 

 Does your 5 tube whistle have any manufactures markings on it, this one I have has none.

So I'm not sure what company made it.

I have the factory made cut out valve for it also.

The longest tube (19-1/4") had a 2 inch long split in it  from some past mishap and I made a sleeve out of a copper tube and soldered it over the split.

 I hooked it up to the exhaust on my SHOP VAC and it sounds great. 

 In my original post I was questioning whether or not it is a steam or a automobile exhaust whistle.

 I think it is the latter due to the large size of the porting.

I'm attaching a photo of my 1928 Ford  replica built by the guy in the picture Wes Brummett. 

He has built 9 of these cars, this is number 8. They are I would say 3/4 full size.

 He builds the wholle car, sheet metal body, box frame, Mustang front end , Vovvo rear end , Buick steering column. 

 I have a spare on it with a cover that says" ONE PIECE AT A TIME"

It weighs 2100 pounds and has a vortec v-6     4.3 cubic engine with a 650 CFM Edlebrock carb on it.

It has a chev 350  3 speed automatic trans mission.

It will do a wheely in first gear. 

 He just sold the last of these cars which was a little truck and now he is making a Shelby Cobra. 

Greg

 

[lump]

Hello. I took one of my exhaust whistles down from the shelf for examination and photos, but not sure where the other one is right now. This one is a Fulton, and is only 15" long. I attached some pix for you: 

Edited August 27, 2019 by lump (see edit history)

[Larry Schramm]

I would vote for steam whistle because of the size.  Kind of big for installation on a car.

Edited August 27, 2019 by Larry Schramm (see edit history)

[Layden B]

This is a Gabriel for an automobile exhaust.

It is 35" long.

[sagefinds]

I've been buying and selling junk to support my hobby for about 45 years and can't recall ever seeing a multi-tube steam whistle. Many single tube,some very large. Pictured is a 3-tube exhaust type,same 35" overall length as Layden's but has three 2" tubes. Still has an exhaust clamp on the other side. In the early to mid teens,Pierce Arrow made the Model 66 with an 814 cubic inch 6-cyl engine that could probably play anything from taps to reveille on any one of these big ones. The big T-head Stutzs,Mercers,and others probably weren't far behind.

[Grimy]

32 minutes ago, sagefinds said:

Pierce Arrow made the Model 66 with an 814 cubic inch 6-cyl engine

Nitpick of the day:  The 66 was 825 cid (rounded up from the decimal) with 5" bore and 7" stroke, 1500 rpm redline...  🙂

[sagefinds]

I stand nitpicked.

[Layden B]

Gregory,

Your engineering is spot on. Compressed air and steam whistles have a very narrow slot because the medium is compressed and thus expanding greatly in volume as it leaves the nozzle. Exhaust whistles have a much larger opening in the nozzle, your picture , the Fulton and 2 subsequent types.

[Gregory C. Korner DSr.]

On 8/27/2019 at 7:16 AM, Larry Schramm said:

I would vote for steam whistle because of the size.  Kind of big for installation on a car.

Well , that does not match all the answers I'm getting about these whistles, some of which are 35 inches long.

 I think it can be mounted anywhere , like under the car next to the frame, lots of room there. 

I can make

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

it work with a 5HP rated SHOP VAC , so I'm sure a 1935  6 cilinder truck will do the job. That is what my brother is going to put it on. 

[DLynskey]

When I was a boy the fire engines were equipped with exhaust whistles to augment the sirens. You always knew when a fire engine was coming instead of an ambulance by the sound of the exhaust whistle.

 

When my dad was young he lived out in the country on a mountain. When his uncle would visit in his Pierce Arrow they knew long before he would get there by the sound of his "wildcat whistle" as they called it, echoing off the surrounding mountains as he made his way to their house.

 

Don

[Gregory C. Korner DSr.]

Now that's some interesting facts about the fire engines using exhaust whistles to augment their sirens.

By the way , I agree with you, I'm 80 , and if it ain't older than me it's not an antique.

I'll  post some pictures of my 1905 Lincoln  Doctors Carriage Built in Greensburg , Indiana. 

If anybody knows of another one around let me know.

 I have to replace the original  builders plate because my dumb brother took it off and he doesn't know what happened to it.

I put an all leather top on it and new goat skin leather seat.

Took me all summer to completely restore it.

[Gregory C. Korner DSr.]

On 8/28/2019 at 11:11 AM, Gregory C. Korner DSr. said:

This might be against the rules but I say rules were made to be broken. My unorthodox question is are any gun collectors in the group?

 I have a 1916 Model 54 Stevens rifle that has a 26 inch ALL ROUND barrel , factory made. Serial number 6076. According to all the old catalogs I have found Stevens did NOT make any ALL round barrel rifles.

According to Dan Schindler's gun price book the rifle is worth  $5,000  in  poor condition and up to $14,000  for mint condition. I have contacted every gun sales business  and have not found another comparable rifle. It has been modified from 22 LR to 22-3000 Lovell,  a really hot shell. It has set triggers, falling block breech, Shootzen but plate. The original fore arm with it's palm rest was swapped out. I just would like to know how it came to be. Is it a special order or what?

Greg