Also, did Stanleys have horns and if so, what did the horns sound like?
Contrary to popular belief, no Stanley steam car shipped from the factory ever had a steam whistle. In fact the steam whistle is a modern addition to a Stanley. The early cars had reed-trumpet horns on them. These were long, coiled, tapered, brass resonators not unlike a trombone or trumpet with a 4″ rubber bulb at the small end. Also inside the small end was a little brass reed kind of like a duck call reed (the same principal that is employed with a clarinet or oboe). When the rubber bulb was squeezed quickly the rush of escaping air caused the reed to vibrate and the resonator amplified the reed’s sound. If you’ve seen any of the old black & white films or Three Stooges stuff from the ’20s then you’ve seen and heard the onk-onk-onk sound of one of the bulb horns being sounded. The next graduation from that was a Klaxon Horn. These have a disk inside that is rotated when a plunger is pushed. The disk has fingers on it that click against a metal plate. The metal plate vibrates and a s
