Talk:Fire alarm notification appliance

"Common problems" section

Currently, the "Common problems" section reads like a technical manual, and is a big jump from the rest of the article. I don't know if it needs to be transwiki'd, rewritten, or just plain old tossed out. Thoughts? SchuminWeb (Talk) 11:33, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

I agree completely; the section is irrelevant to the rest of the article and is unecessary for the user needing basic information about the fire alarm. JosephSH 13:28, 21 March 2006

From a fire protection expert

I do not recommend deleting information because the layman who is "just looking" may not understand it. Believe me, nobody "just looks" at any fire protection items because nobody cares enough unless he or she has a real need. Then, suddenly, the seemingly irrelevant or perhaps disturbing items that may irk an administrator for basic editorial reasons, which are also relevant generically, can become very important indeed.--Achim 16:22, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

I've been doing some thinking about the material in question, and I actually think that we need to do a considerable restructuring of the entire cluster of fire alarm articles, since right now, we have a not-so-well-defined article, and a few child articles. SchuminWeb (Talk) 00:02, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

N-alarm Fire

Someome please tell me if this is correct, if not please fix it:

The term N-alarm Fire (for example 2-alarm fire) refers to the number of vehicles dispatched to fight the fire.

Once correct, I want to add it to the article.71.199.123.24 21:37, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

It refers to the number of "agencies" (firehouses) responding. user:dss311

Fire Risk Student

If anyone comes to rewrite this article they should remember to include verbal fire alarms which are in increasing use. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 80.80.190.132 (talk • contribs) .

Are you referring to voice evacuation systems, where, when a fire alarm is activated, instead of a horn, it's a voice saying, "A fire emergency has been reported in the building"? If so, that's not a bad idea, but as I've said before, fire alarm stuff on Wikipedia needs a MAJOR overhaul. SchuminWeb (Talk) 18:14, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Renamed

Since this article is mainly about fire alarm notification appliances (bells, horns, strobes, etc.), I renamed it as such, and turned the title fire alarm into a disambiguation page, since "fire alarm" is used to refer to any or all elements of the whole fire alarm system. Since people say, "I'm going to pull the fire alarm" referring to a manual pull station and "the fire alarm is going off" referring to a notification appliance, this makes the most sense.

Of course, now we need to clean this article up to make it more specifically notification, and either remove or find new homes for the other information. SchuminWeb (Talk) 05:21, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

To note moves: The "devices" section has been moved to Fire alarm system, and the bit about false pulled alarms has been moved to manual pull station. Some general material was straight-up removed due to being too general for the article's new, more specific scope, and I don't know where this ought to go. I also removed some uncited material, which I believe may be inaccurate. SchuminWeb (Talk) 06:48, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

Buzzer pattern?

I know an elementary school near the outskirts of town. The fire notification appliances have older fire alarm horns (according to the Web, they look like Simplex 4050 horns) retrofitted on a silver panel with a red flashing light on the bottom (it isn't a strobe; it might be LED). They have a different noise pattern than the ones described on this page. It buzzes like, 1-second pulse, 1-second pause, 1-second pulse, 1-second pause, 1-second pulse, 1-second pause, 1-second pulse, etc. The light flashes on and off in time with the buzzing. Does this pattern have a name or something? Do newer notification appliances use this pattern? --Wile E2005 14:16, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Wile E2005 (talk · contribs), I'm assuming you're talking about codes? The article mentions code 3 and continuous but I'm not sure if you're referring to march time or code 4-4-4-4 (aka the cadence marching code) but I'd imagine that WP:INDISCRIMINATE would explain why it doesn't mention all this. Also, those flashing lights you mentioned are neither strobes nor LED's; they're actually incandescent lights.--2601:153:800:8308:3813:9EF8:FA5A:C703 (talk) 04:36, 17 February 2018 (UTC)

Just read "the majority of audible notification appliances installed prior to 1996 produced a steady sound for evacuation" (i.e. continuous) so it looks like coding was unusual during the time the 4050 horns were made. They used code 4-4-4-4 (better known as cadence marching code) from the 1920s until the 1960s (the horns or bells would make 4-pulses, 4-times, and after 4-rounds of 4, the alarms would automatically reset themselves, this code allowed for a quick-and-orderly evacuation) but other than that, codes weren't really implemented, and everything was continuous, until 1996. I guess those 4050 horns you mentioned would be an exception.--2601:153:800:8308:3813:9EF8:FA5A:C703 (talk) 18:41, 19 May 2018 (UTC)

Terminology

Should there be any mentioning of fire bell and fire horn in the article? I've heard these terms used before in reference to the notification appliances of an alarm system.--2601:153:800:8308:3813:9EF8:FA5A:C703 (talk) 03:48, 17 February 2018 (UTC)