This is a heavy metal siren used on Minneapolis Police Department squad cars in the 1960s through approximately 1972.
It was made by the Federal Sign and Signal Corporation of Blue Island, Illinois. The Model is the 66G with a serial number of 2026. It is a 12 Volt model and you can see that it retains part of its cord.
We visited recently with a group of retired Minneapolis Police Officers to learn more about this siren.
We learned that in the winter, even though it had a protective hood, it was prone to freezing up. Officers knew that if they turned the siren on and no sound emanated, it meant that the siren was packed with ice inside.
When this happened, the passenger-side officer would reach out and strike at the siren with a nightstick in an attempt to knock the ice out and get the siren to work. You can see a dent which was caused by this nightstick routine in the photograph below.
Summer or winter, when the siren was turned on it caused the squad car headlights to dim.
The siren was originally mounted on the front fender and eventually, as you see in this photograph of a 1969 Ford squad car, an electric siren was also mounted to the lightbar of the roof of the squad car between with the flashing lights.
When the Model 66G was decommissioned sometime after 1972, the sirens were put into 55 gallon drums and sent to the scrapyard.
We are fortunate to have one of the remaining Model 66Gs in our museum collection.
A warm thank you to the Retired Minneapolis Police Officers who provided their stories of the Model 66G.
Photograph of the 1969 Ford Squad Car courtesy of Scott Reichel.