Original Item: Only One Available. Gas Warfare, now banned by International Treaty, was first introduced in WWI on the Western Front, and the results were devastating. Soon everyone was issued with a gas mask and was required to carry one at all times. Various types of "gas alarms", from simple wooden rattles to mechanical sirens were employed to help warn the soldiers that it was time to put the mask on.

This lovely WWI-manufactured siren is in non-working condition. The handle cranks but does not produce any sort of noise as it once did. The inner workings of the siren can be observed from the horn, which shows the gears turning on the interior, but the connection to the noisemaker part appears to be severed. This would possibly be restored to working order, but would work fine as a display piece as well.

The company was founded as Stewart & Clark Company in 1905 by John K. Stewart. Their speedometers were used in the Ford Model T. In 1912 John Stewart joined with Edgar Bassick to make vehicle instruments and horns. Bassick owned Alemite Co. and Stewart had bought the Warner Instrument Company; thus the name was changed to the Stewart-Warner Corporation. The company started in Chicago and built a manufacturing plant on Diversey Parkway. The building kept expanding and finally covered one million square feet (93,000 m²) and six floors. At its peak S-W employed 6000 people at the Diversey complex. They also made radios and refrigerators, among other products, and produced the ubiquitous "zerk" grease fitting, named after its inventor, associated with the company. In the last years of the company's Chicago factory, it owned a number of aging six-spindle Brown & Sharpe and New Britain screw machines.

The back plate is nicely marked:

10765
SERIAL NO
10307
MODEL 149A
MADE FOR
CHEMICAL WARFARE SERVICE US ARMY
BY
STEWART WARNER SPEEDOMETER CORP
CHICAGO USA

An authentic and well-marked piece, non-functional and repainted but we think it could possibly be brought back to life with some work. Comes ready for further research and display.