Bell-Evans Co.

Bell Machinery and Industrial Supplies Co.
The name of the company on a Minnesota Department of Public safety document.
Names	Bell Machinery and Industrial Supplies Co. Bell-Evans Co.
Headquarters	Terminal Island, CA
Founded	1920s?
Defunct	1940s?
Products	Vehicular electric sirens

The Bell Machinery and Industrial Supplies Company, formerly known as Bell-Evans, was a Terminal Island, CA-based manufacturer of various industrial supplies, including vehicular sirens.

Very few references to this company can be found, with the only information known about it coming from a CHP list of approved devices from the 1940's that listed a 'Bell-Evans siren', as well as a Minnesota Department of Public Safety list of approved vehicular sirens, which lists a "Freewheeling" siren. The company is long-gone and very few units of their sirens are known to exist.

Note: Due to the lack of a known model name for any sirens by this company, the sirens have been given conjectural names.

History

Very little is known about Bell, aside from the fact that it was founded sometime in the 1920's in Terminal Island, California, and was originally named Bell-Evans Co. The company would produce a vehicular siren with heavy inspiration taken from B&M, similar to how Soundmaster Signals' sirens were heavily inspired by ACA's SuperBanshee. B&M rotors were apparently used as casting patterns to be used for Bell-Evans sirens, with casting irregularities that match those on an old B&M rotor. Sometime after this the company's name would change to Bell Machinery and Industrial Supplies Co. Bell would go under sometime during the 1940s, as no traces of the company can be found after this period. It is likely they closed up shop during or after World War II.

Products

Vehicular Electric Sirens

The front of a Freewheeling siren. Four rotor vanes and three arms holding a front bearing can be seen.

A Bell-Evans Freewheeling siren without the housing. The siren is being held up by a small tin container.

Freewheeling siren

The Freeweheeling siren is the only siren known to have been produced by Bell. The exact name of the siren is unknown, though a document released by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety lists it as a "Freewheeling" siren, though this is likely not the actual name of it. There appears to have been 2 variants of the siren, with one being equipped with a clutch brake and one not being equipped with one. The siren is identical to B&M's S8 "M1", down to the stator and rotor design with the jailbar-like finger guards. It is relatively simple in terms of design, consisting of an 8 port rotor and stator with the aforementioned finger guards over each port.

The rotor is driven by a small, likely 6 V motor, and has 4 long vanes, which is very unique among vehicular sirens. The only known existing unit is equipped with a clutch that would probably have worn out very quickly due to its pin-and-ramp design. The rotor and stator of the 1st generation B&M S8 siren appear to have been used as casting patterns for Bell-Evans siren rotors, though they are slightly smaller. Normal shrinkage of aluminum on cooling would exactly account for the size difference, as casting patterns are typically made oversize to allow for shrinkage as the casting cools. The siren's housing is reminiscent of the B&M Super Chief, with the sirens sharing the same general design. It is unknown how many of these were made.