Whistles & Lights

A "wildcat" whistle is often the term given to whistles such as the Lunkenheimer or Crane "Mockingbird" whistle or Lunkenheimer "Fire Alarm". These whistles have an internal piston inside the bell which can be slid up and down the length of the bell to change the pitch, just as in a toy slide whistle. You can read an article which appeared about such a whistle at http://www.yorkblog.com/archives/2006/01/the_worlds_loud.html

Hank Bloomer;2019 wrote: I have run across the term "wildcat" whistle or "panther" whistle a number of times. What makes a whistle a "wildcat" whistle?

In the wonderful photo of the Belle of Louisville in the fog at TS, she is showing unshielded (360 deg.) red and green lights on the her very aftermost corners. They can't be her navigation lights as they are in the wrong location and are both visible all around. What does this signify?

Hank, the BELLE falls under the old rules for nav lights. She carries one red lantern on the outboard side of her port stack, visible all-around, and a green one with the same characteristics on her starboard stack. Since this boat never ventures out of Western Rivers territory, she is safe to continue to do this. There was a discussion on the board about a year ago on this subject that you might find through the archives. Capt. Charlie Lehman went into a great deal of wonderful deatil about the history and evolution of the signal lights.

I remember the discussion well, but I thought the navigation lights had to be on the stacks. These are mounted on the aftermost points of the stern, aft of the wheel.

The "Belle" carries spotlights way out at the aft end of her fantail on each side. They are aimed into the wheel. In Tall Stacks pic 81 (in the fog), the beam from the port side spot is reflecting off the red wheel bucket, producing a hazy red patch of light. The reflection can't be seen from the starboard side, but the spot itself looks a wee bit green - perhaps just due to refraction through the mist...?

Hi, Richard & steamboating colleagues:
I appreciate your insights and links to the famed 'wildcat' whistles and, again, am dumb as mud on the technical aspects. I do well recall hearing such 'wildcats' as a kid well into the 1950s and possibly very 1960s in and around the Cincinnati harbor. My memories of them were usually at night in fog or bad weather steaming up/down around Dayton Bar near old St. Rose Church on Eastern Ave. I'm more than vague now on which boats but thought either the VERITY or SEBALD. If the OMAR or ORCO had such whistles I'm not sure. No doubt Capts. Bill Judd, Alan Bates and Don Sanders would recall along with Tom Schiffer.

I often wondered if the 'wildcat' wasn't a smaller whistle mounted at the top of one of the whistle bells. The "sliding device" as Richard describes is new to me. Also, was the 'wildcat' activated by pulling the whistle cord down for the regular whistle blast and then harder down to make the 'wildcat' scream? You know, WhoooooooooEEEEEEEEEEE! Heck, I don't know but certainly remember what I heard. You know the old saying: "In every dim memory there's a thread of truth." Well, possibly.

Cheers and thanks,
R. Dale Flick

A smaller whistle mounted on top of a larger one cound be either a steam gong, represented by US Patent 0048921, or a coaxial, represented by US Patent 264606. The Lunkenheimer Fire Alarm is US Patent 476472, while the Lunkenheimer Mockingbird is US Patent 503547. You can see the complete patents (drawings and all) by going to http://www.freepatentsonline.com and entering the number. It is best displayed in .pdf format.

Maybe someone will recognize one or more of these very rare whistle types.

R. Dale Flick;2029 wrote: Hi, Richard & steamboating colleagues:
I appreciate your insights and links to the famed 'wildcat' whistles and, again, am dumb as mud on the technical aspects. I do well recall hearing such 'wildcats' as a kid well into the 1950s and possibly very 1960s in and around the Cincinnati harbor. My memories of them were usually at night in fog or bad weather steaming up/down around Dayton Bar near old St. Rose Church on Eastern Ave. I'm more than vague now on which boats but thought either the VERITY or SEBALD. If the OMAR or ORCO had such whistles I'm not sure. No doubt Capts. Bill Judd, Alan Bates and Don Sanders would recall along with Tom Schiffer.

I often wondered if the 'wildcat' wasn't a smaller whistle mounted at the top of one of the whistle bells. The "sliding device" as Richard describes is new to me. Also, was the 'wildcat' activated by pulling the whistle cord down for the regular whistle blast and then harder down to make the 'wildcat' scream? You know, WhoooooooooEEEEEEEEEEE! Heck, I don't know but certainly remember what I heard. You know the old saying: "In every dim memory there's a thread of truth." Well, possibly.

Cheers and thanks,
R. Dale Flick

I'm under the impression that a wildcat whistle was a set of whistles with one being very high pitched. We have one like that on our Graceful Ghost. The whistles that can vary in pitch could also be called "sirens", but never heard of one on a steamboat. There is one of those sirens in the historical museum in Jefferson, Texas, and I would love to get my hands on it and give it a blow.

Thanks Keith- that makes more sense.

The Western Rivers definition for a wildcat whistle is as follow: "A lengthy large single whistle is fitted at its top with a squeally high-pitched little job which gets its action from what steam is left over in the big one. The result is a deep sonorous sound from the parent job, followed by an unearthly yowl from the little feller". Now I'm not that smart on this stuff so I'll tell you the above qoute is from Capt. Fred Way in the December 1991 S & D Reflector.

The Weber W. Sebold did have a wildcat as did the Ellen Hatfield.

I have never heard of any type of whistle other than the sliding piston type referrred to as a "wildcat". The term originated because these types of whistles were widely used at "wildcat" oil rigs as fire alarms.

Maybe riverboaters have their own definition of a "wildcat" whistle, but what you said narrows it down to either a steam gong or a coaxial. The difference between these two types is that in a steam gong, two opposing bells share the same bowl. You can easily identify when such a whistle is blowing, because the steam cloud goes both above, as well as below the whistle.

In a coaxial, conventional whistles are simply stacked vertically, one above the other. Its steam cloud only goes above it. I think we're getting close to finally narrowing it all down.

In addition to this, any whistle will overblow to its third harmonic if the pressure is high enough. In this case, however, the low tone will disappear as the pitch jumps by an octave and a fifth, rather than continuing to sound along with the high tone.

Bill Judd;2037 wrote: The Western Rivers definition for a wildcat whistle is as follow: "A lengthy large single whistle is fitted at its top with a squeally high-pitched little job which gets its action from what steam is left over in the big one. The result is a deep sonorous sound from the parent job, followed by an unearthly yowl from the little feller". Now I'm not that smart on this stuff so I'll tell you the above qoute is from Capt. Fred Way in the December 1991 S & D Reflector.

The Weber W. Sebold did have a wildcat as did the Ellen Hatfield.

Wildcat whistles

Cap'n Bill's got it right. Here's an example of a new wildcat. Just take that dude in the center with the little guy on the top and you've got it. This picture is of the whistle now installed on the powerhouse at the University of Kansas. The whistle is patterned after the one used on the George M. Verity. A similar but slightly different whistle was used on the Tom Greene. These 4 bell chimers where always called "St. Lawrence" whistles because of an early boat that started the trend.

Seeing is believing. This whistle is what I would call a combination three bell chime with a fourth coaxially whistle added, making it, in effect, a four bell chime.

There was once a large three bell chime Lunkenheimer at the Mayfield Manufacturing Company (formerly the Mayfield Woolen Mill) on Water Street in Mayfield, KY. It only had three bells, but it's smallest was much smaller and higher pitched than normal. Its chord was weird. I suppose it could have also been considered as a wildcat whistle by this definition. I recorded the whistle and did a feature story on it when I was Publisher of Horn & Whistle magazine between 1988-1994.

A fire about ten years ago later destroyed the plant, but the whistle was still on the roof of the factory's physical plant, which was unaffected by the fire. I saw that whistle standing there several days after the fire and inquired about it to no avail. No one seemed to know anything. The physical plant was later torn down. I looked through the rubble, but the whistle was no longer there. I sure would like to know just what happened to that whistle.

AJ Richardson;2148 wrote: Cap'n Bill's got it right. Here's an example of a new wildcat. Just take that dude in the center with the little guy on the top and you've got it. This picture is of the whistle now installed on the powerhouse at the University of Kansas. The whistle is patterned after the one used on the George M. Verity. A similar but slightly different whistle was used on the Tom Greene. These 4 bell chimers where always called "St. Lawrence" whistles because of an early boat that started the trend.