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The steam whistle played a major role in the American Industrial Revolution. For over a hundred years “Steam was King” and the steam whistles of this country summoned the American factory and mill workers to their jobs in the mornings and sent them home again when the shift was over.
The steam whistles blew for lunch, for fires and emergencies, and for disaster.
They blew in celebration of the Fourth of July, of New Years Eve and they sounded to celebrate the end of the Great Wars.
Locomotives blew their steam whistles to warn traffic at railroad crossings.
Steamships blew their steam whistles to signal arrivals and departures.
Steam tractors blew their steam whistles to signal for more fuel or water.
As electrification and the use of gasoline and diesel mechanical power became more commonplace, steam power and the sounds of the once familiar steam whistles were silenced and faded into history.
This site is dedicated to the history and the preservation of the American Steam whistle.
(This site is not meant to be comprehensive. It is designed to convey some basic information about steam whistles and to hopefully generate some interest in the preservation of these relics of a bygone age. For a comprehensive survey of the subject please consult The Engine's Moan: American Steam Whistles, by Edward A. Fagen.)
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