Every once in awhile something comes in the door, never before seen and likely never seen again. Case in point, a ship’s bellows-style fog horn. What?
Believe it or not, 100 years ago when a sailing ship was enshrouded in fog and there weren’t any vuvuzelas on board, they grabbed up the bellows and started tooting.
Alldays & Onions Fog Horn, circa 1890
Back in 1650 a fellow named Onions (pronounced like O’Nye-uns) started making bellows and quickly cornered the market in England. His company merged with a competitor named Alldays (interesting names, wot?) in 1889 to form Alldays & Onions, which went on to make cars and motorcycles and whatnot.
This bellows-style fog horn would have been used on a sailing ship before horns were powered by the steam boilers, and one of the deck hands would have slowly pumped it to produced the long, low sound associated with tugboats.
Alldays & Onions Fog Horn, Brass Trumpet
Why did you think we say someone “bellowed out” an answer?
“Because of the old pump-horn,” he bellowed.
Mo Info:
I have one of these and had no idea what it was. I purchased it from an estate sale and thought it was just a fireplace bellows and did not realize it was a horn until I got it home and tried it out. Do you know anyone I can talk to about its worth? It has an English coat of arms painted on it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks