Evolution of horns - Pradeep Dhas

Dhas Motor Works - Nagercoil - History Of Horns

Sound is an identity given to all living and non living things on earth. When the tone on the sound changes for some reason, we see that as an issue. Example lion has to roar for its identity. If it barks we see it as an issue. Ok .. let’s get back to horns...

Thanks to Eby Periappa with helping me on setting up & Tuning the horns that had issues and quite a few sellers (Akram,defence & jadson automobile, Rehan from India & UK sellers) who helped me with gathering these together and also with spares. Each horn has its own identity with respect to Sound and bringing back to its original sound is the challenge. That's what the lion story is all about :)

I like to set a starting point for the evolution of horn although the warning sounds should have existed right from creation of earth (eg.whistle, clap, drums, thunder, slap from Adam to Eve 😏 etc).

Here comes the starting point.........

Kanyakumari- The only weekend tourist destination during childhood and also a starting point for India🙂. The first thing anyone remembers is the sea shell sounds from street vendors all along the junction of 3 seas corridor. So this is going to my starting point about evolution of horns. And the blog will be based on the travel option humans had at various time periods.

SEA SHELL:

During Kingdom era, sea shell has been used to warn soldiers or enemies on the situations. These shells as you know mostly had a spiral construction starting from blowing point toward the mouth of the horn. The medium of travel was mostly walk/carts/chariot during those days. Will upload few photos when I start exploring on sea shells and buy few. Please note the shape of the shell, which will be reflected in most of the horns below.

BELLS:

Next change on mode of transport was to bicycle which had cycle bell which was a mechanical way of automating the childhood school bells in a portable form🙂. Same period bullock carts were provided with either a bell on neck of the bull or the driver had a mechanical bell (around half feet cylindrical ones) which should have been the starting point of the bells you see in govt office desks. Bullock cart bells - photo will be uploaded. For the amount of moving crowd those days, bell was sufficient and was audible.

BULB OPERATED AIR HORNS

In parallel to mechanical horns, the air horns were evolving too. The same sea shell spiral grooves were used for structuring the blow type horns using brass as the metal for making and a rubber bulb to generate the air blow. The sound gets generated at the reed and the spiral shape amplifies it to get a better decibel output. There were horns with straight pipes too which had a different purpose/sound efficiency

Horn with spiral pipe and you can see the reed at the starting point which generates the sound. It’s missing the bulb and the tube that covers the reed as like the next photo.

Another spiral one with snake head.

6 foot long straight pipe.

All the above horns were bit of soft horns with low decibels.

Steam/Fuel Locomotive Era

The mode of transportation got moved towards steam, petrol locomotives and the need for heavy horn was much required due to the growing crowd movement and powerful engines. This applies to all mode of transports. This blog will cover just car horns, since train, boat/ship horns are bit different path to follow.

MECHANICAL PUSH HORNS:

This is almost similar to cycle bell but the build is heavy with a diaphragm ( a metal plate). When the rod is pushed it makes a slightly offset gear wheel to hit the diaphragm which generates the sound. Battery not required.

MECHANICAL PULL HORNS:

It’s same as above except the honking mechanism is triggered out of pull using a chain mechanism. It’s a heavy one and it was even fitted to the roof of boats 100 years back. Battery not required.

Vaccum horns:

This is something to be tested to see if it’s a vacuum or air operated horn. There were vacuum operation horn which operates on suction power rather than blow power. The bulb horns above are examples of blow power. This suction power is generated from the engines inlet manifold where the pistons suction pulls in air from. The drawback of these horns are, it can be operated only when the engine is running or using a vacuum storage tank.

MOTORISED HORNS:

The upcoming ones are good inventions that changed the way horn is been operated. For the growing traffic and minimising the risk on manually operating the horn while driving, car buyers were expecting a horn which can be operated closer to steering wheel. Motorising a horn with electric (initially 6v and later cars 12v) with a horn button on steering wheel or column would have been the idea. So there were 2 types of motorised horn. One was driven in parallel (as below) and another was Perpendicular driven (photo to be updated) - fitted to quite few rollsroyce.

This had a Industry version (unbranded) which works in 230v

BEGINNING OF MODERN DAY HORNS:

Few of the below horns are the starting point of the Modern day horns:

BOSCH: (Germany)

CLEAR HOOTERS: (England)

Lets Get back to Kanyakumari Now... :) Yes its my favourite collection with some concept on it (Shell shaped horns). This is where we started getting beautiful soft sounded horns.

Lucas (England):

Mitsuba (Japan):

Prestolite (USA):

MADE IN INDIA:

Most of the below horns are made by horn manufacturers in India. As you see these are designed out of the above horn designs. The common brands on cars were Jalwa, Venus, Shraco etc. But was surprised to see few more brands from India. Yet exploring few other brands which will be updated when I get hold of.

Brand: Mac

Brand: Sharco

Brand:Acme

Brand: Mini Jalwa

Brand: De

Brand: Jalwa

60's-70's SHELL SHAPED HORNS:

GRILL HORN ERA:

Bosch (Germany) - Big Type - This was Banned for its high decibel sound is what I have been told. Yes, ears go blank when honked from close range. Testing the horn is always a challenge and is a regular sound we hear in our workshop as part of periappa's testing. And during school days, our Mark 2 Ambassador is recognised using the unique sound it makes (even the security guard picks up the sound among the crowded vehicles). I can sense the car's entry to our school even if I am nowhere closer to the entrance gate :).