Federal FIRE BALL Family History

The only rebranded Fireball I have is a FB-1 labeled for J.W. Speaker Corp.  That's a nice Signal Stat badged Fireball, Dan.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • Like
Reactions: Skip Goulet and dmathieu
It can be surprising at the rebadging that Federal did.   On one of the Facebook sites I see a guy here in TX had a Federal Model "O" siren that had been rebadged many, many years ago for the old Detroit-General Corp.  I saw a few of those as a kids and just thought then that they were copying what Federl built.  Now I know better!
 
I know that through the decades Federal Signal has rebadged beacons to be sold by Dietz, J.W. Speaker, Signal-Stat, and W.S. Darley.  I wonder how the prices on the rebadged products compared to prices on the same products sold under the Federal Signal name?
 
stansdds said:
I know that through the decades Federal Signal has rebadged beacons to be sold by Dietz, J.W. Speaker, Signal-Stat, and W.S. Darley.  I wonder how the prices on the rebadged products compared to prices on the same products sold under the Federal Signal name?
Click to expand...
I know that the sirens rebadged for Darley  as Champion Sirens were considerably lower than the stock Federal sirens. I'd assume the same was true for the beacons.  I have a beacon that when I first got it I thought it was a low-skirted older 17. Turned out to be a 174 with the older skirt and smaller dome and is labeled as a Darley Champion.
 
Windycity411 said:
Picked up a new addition for my Fireball collection. F7 dome is a little rough. It could use a wet sanding.  A clear dome model FB13W Series A2 seems like a good find for under $100. Now I have a Fireball rainbow! I knew someone here would enlighten me as to what FB13W was.
Click to expand...
Nice family !
 
  • Like
Reactions: Skip Goulet
Very Nice Dan.

I wonder: with all the Fireballs you have, have you come across every single version that was made? Do you have many Fireballs that are identical (in model, serial, color, etc) meaning when you find a NOS one/newer/better one you already have, you just keep this better one and sell the lesser nice one? (Altough they are ALL nice) :)
 
I have a few NOS, and rare repeats, but for the most part, I do exactly as you say, ending up with a pretty complete NOS to mint collection.

I think I have most of what was offered. I know that I am missing split teardrop domes.

I'm always on the look out.

I currently have 24 teardrop Fire Balls in my collection, plus the FB2 rotating and strobe versions, as well as the FireBeam/MagnaBeam series.
 
Another oddity........NOS FB-1 with serial number 2A12P1.

The typical serial number is 2A12 .

In previous posts I have noted other odd serial Numbers.

Unsure why the added letters and numbers in these odd serial numbers. Maybe special manufacturing run, or made for special customer. Open to other suggestions.

post-12449-0-59840500-1415655013_thumb.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • Like
Reactions: Skip Goulet and stansdds
dmathieu said:
I have a few NOS, and rare repeats, but for the most part, I do exactly as you say, ending up with a pretty complete NOS to mint collection.

I think I have most of what was offered. I know that I am missing split teardrop domes.

I'm always on the look out.

I currently have 24 teardrop Fire Balls in my collection, plus the FB2 rotating and strobe versions, as well as the FireBeam/MagnaBeam series.
Click to expand...
What do you have in your collection of non-Federal teardrop lights?
 
I have a blue NOS, NIB Trippe MR-3 teardrop, and 2 French National Police GDO blue teardrops, all for sale. Other than those, the only teardrops that I have in my collection are 24 all different Federal Fire Ball teardrops.

I have a more specialized collection than I used to, not quite as eclectic.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • Like
Reactions: Skip Goulet
dmathieu said:
November, 1956 ad , the oldest that I've seen advertising the Fire Ball.

The first production run of the Fire Ball was August 1956.
Click to expand...
The first ad I ever saw showing the Fireball was Federal's Catalog 300 that came out in 1959.  I'm sure you've seen it, Dan, with a picture of a red Fireball sitting on the dash with the slip-on cover.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kitn1mcc
Here is a great long awaited addition to my Fire Ball sub-collection, (thanks to eric6913!!).

This is a Federal Signal F-7 dome in European CIE blue. It is mounted to my Rebadged Sirac Paris FBH11. The pictures show that it is darker than the standard Federal blue, but the pictures don't do it justice. This is very dark, very blue, more on the dark indigo side. The Federal CIE blue is the same very dark blue as is on the European made GDO teardrop also used by The French National Police.

On the negative side, this very dark European blue decreases the light output substantially.  

Thanks again Eric!

S6304390.JPG

S6304395.JPG

S6304396.JPG
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • Like
Reactions: kitn1mcc, Skip Goulet, stansdds and 2 others
Great comparison shots.  I never understood why European nations adopted such a dark blue for warning beacons.  I'm sure it is visible at night, but during the day blue light is already at a disadvantage, making it darker would make it even worse.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Skip Goulet
stansdds said:
Great comparison shots.  I never understood why European nations adopted such a dark blue for warning beacons.  I'm sure it is visible at night, but during the day blue light is already at a disadvantage, making it darker would make it even worse.
Click to expand...
I agree with you on that.   When I was in Lubbock, the one funeral home still running an ambulance operation put two then-new '69 Oldsmobile ambulances in service. Both came with the two roof-mounted "torpedo" light that Cotner/Bevington used at the time, along with a roof-mounted Q and Dietz 211 beacons behind the sirens.  The two torpedo lights were barely visible, so they mounted a pair of blue Dietz lollipops between the torpedo lights and Q sirens. Didn't do them much better, as they couldn't be seen that well during the day; but at night the blue sure stood out.  Eventually they got the "message" and removed the torpedo lights, replacing them with red Dietz lollipops.  Much better!
 
dmathieu said:
Here is the only FB-1 base that I have ever seen that does not have a swing out security mounting clip to slide over a small screw installed in the roof to keep the light from sliding off.
Click to expand...
Perhaps this was very early production and the need for the clip had yet to be discovered.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dmathieu, Skip Goulet and kitn1mcc
stansdds said:
Perhaps this was very early production and the need for the clip had yet to be discovered.
Click to expand...
That's possible, but even the early Juniors had the clip.  At Ellis Funeral Home we had a Junior on our '58 Chrysler wagon, and it had the security clip; but it didn't do much good. At 65 the light flew off the car despite the clip and badly damaged the light.  The ambulance was run sans-light for nearly two months while the light was being repaired by Federal.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kitn1mcc
You know, you think you've seen it all, and know your lights.......then something comes up to prove you wrong!

This is the roughest Fire Ball that I have bought......here's why I bought it.

The earliest S/N of any Fire Ball that I've seen, or even seen discussed is   2A12......

Below are pics of my new 2A10

Very early version, 2A10 S/N, has no vibration plate for rotator assy. The assy, and everything else is mounted directly to the aluminum base instead of a gold colored vibration absorbing mounting plate. There is no security mounting clip mounted to the front of the base. The power strip screws come up from the bottom, with the nuts at the top. The clip system holding the dome clamp ring is different from all that I've see. I don't believe this is a home made clip because the riveting and types of rivets used is proper for this type of clip system, and not for the typical Fire Ball clamp ring clip.

I think I might have another piece of history here.

More after I receive it and get it cleaned up.

vintagefe-1421638787-1515 (1).jpg

vintagefe-1421638792-1517 (1).jpg

vintagefe-1421638802-1521.jpg

vintagefe-1421638800-1520.jpg

vintagefe-1421638809-1524.jpg

vintagefe-1421638811-1525.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • Like
Reactions: Maxim2Eng, Skip Goulet, stansdds and 1 other person
Rough shape, but a different, historical item added to the extensive Fire Ball sub-collection.

A good teardown and clean-up will help some.

Never even heard of a 2A10 before.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Skip Goulet said:
That's possible, but even the early Juniors had the clip.  At Ellis Funeral Home we had a Junior on our '58 Chrysler wagon, and it had the security clip; but it didn't do much good. At 65 the light flew off the car despite the clip and badly damaged the light.  The ambulance was run sans-light for nearly two months while the light was being repaired by Federal.
Click to expand...
The Junior came out in March of  1958, well after the  August of 1956 start of the Fire Ball. By that time, the Fire Ball definitely had the screw clamp. The same screw clamp was used on the cast aluminum base Model 15E, and the 1962 Vitalite.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Skip Goulet
Betcha dollars to donuts that the series 2A10 was from the first two years of production and the 2A12 incorporated fixes in the design.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Skip Goulet and dmathieu
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum Statistics

Threads
54,934
Messages
453,678
Members
19,605
Latest member
AWN

Share This Page

Share this page
Top Bottom
Back