Civil Defense Warning Siren controller
| Civil Defense Warning Siren (C.D.W.S.) controller | |
 The dial of the C.D.W.S. Controller, as seen in "Day of the Killer Tornadoes" (1978) | |
| Company | Western Electric Co. |
|---|---|
| Produced | 1950s-1980s? |
| Type | Siren controller |
The Civil Defense Warning Siren (C.D.W.S.) controller is a controller that was manufactured by Western Electric Co. for Bell or AT&T Telephone Co. The controller consists of a central console similar to a dial to a desktop rotary phone, as well as a light up board that states what signal the sirens are currently sounding.
Overview
This controller, when used, sends a signal via. phone relay to receivers mounted to sirens. When a signal is received, sirens are activated. To activate sirens, a certain section has to be dialed twice within 5 seconds. The dial has 5 sections, 4 for siren signals "test" (1), "attack" (3), two instances of "alert" (2 and 4), and one for "cancel".
In Bell literature, the controller was initially thought of during WWII, however the first know iteration of it is from 1950. The earliest known instance of this controller appearing anywhere was in a 1960 civil defense film that was shot in the Washington, DC metro. The controller did also have some screentime in 1978's Day of the Killer Tornadoes.
It is currently not known when this controller was taken out of production, however a logical guess would be the late 1970s or early 1980s.
Photos:
(PDF) Bell System publication from January 1968 pertaining to the CDWS. unknown. Retrieved March 6, 2018. </ref>