Vintage Catalogs: Smith & Wesson

[LRGJr72]

 

[coop359]

Cool. I did not know you could get a green lens with the pancake light. I had a blue one as a POC F/F in Illinois. It was one of the brighter lights based on the reflector size. I also did not know that they had a PAR 46 beacon. I remember you could get their twinsonic shaped lightbar with PAR 46s.

 

[coop359]

When I got on hired at the PD in 1988, we had the S&W bars like the catalog. Some had rectangular bulbs for flashers and some had PAR 36s. No alley lights. All red. Then we tried 1 Jet sonic in red. Then Streethawks w/ speaker grills red/blue with dual takedown lights in lower. They flashed with the alley lights in position 3, then all light street hawks, then MX7000, then 1 Tomar Neobe strobe bar, Whelen Patriot with 8 strobes and 6 7mm LEDs and halogen TD/ AL, then Whelen Liberty and finally 1st gen FS Valor bars in dual color red/blue. Wonder what they will go with next change over.

 

[LRGJr72]

I remember you could get their twinsonic shaped lightbar with PAR 46s.

Smith & Wesson did at one point sell a lightbar that was basically a re-badged Dietz Omni-Chief. I wonder if anyone here has any S&W literature that features that product.

 

[cmb56]

Smith & Wesson was selling rebranded equipment from Dietz and Yankee before they came with their own line of equipment seen in this catalog.

The mechanics of the 236 and 436 lights are Arrow.

I should have some brochures of the old equipment somewhere but it is not at hand at the moment.

We had a warning equipment distributor here in Sweden in the 80s that bought some test samples from S&W but they never started to sell anything.

They had a special made test sample of the bar that had two offset rotators and two rectangular sealed beams on one side and two rotators with diamond mirror in between on the other side.

Michael

 

[nerdly_dood]

I always wondered if this was actually the same company that makes guns, that logo gives it away for sure.

 

[Wailer]

The early Smith & Wesson Magnum series electronic sirens (with the large pushbuttons) were sold under other brand names (e.g. the Stephenson Magnum IV and the Dietz OmniSound). There are demos of these sirens on YouTube.

 

[tsquale]

Recently got in these Stephenson / Smith & Wesson Brochures.

 

[dmathieu]

NICE! Rebadged rebadged Signal Stat!!!!

 

[stansdds]

Excellent addition to the catalog sub-forum!

 

[Thebakerman]

We had some of those S&W bars in the mid to late 80's and it was always interesting to me how they used standard rectangular automobile headlamps for the front takedown and rear flashers. That would have made replacing them inexpensive and easy to source. I don't see it included in this catalog but I recall seeing security vehicles in some of the local gated communities using these bars with green lenses. Perhaps green became available later on.

 

[tsquale]

We had some of those S&W bars in the mid to late 80's and it was always interesting to me how they used standard rectangular automobile headlamps for the front takedown and rear flashers. That would have made replacing them inexpensive and easy to source. I don't see it included in this catalog but I recall seeing security vehicles in some of the local gated communities using these bars with green lenses. Perhaps green became available later on.

Here is my green one

 

[tsquale]

 

[Wailer]

View attachment 221127

Those are the late model Magnum sirens. I have the Magnum IV B. It sounds like a cross between an early 1980s Southern VP SA400 and a General Electric Power-Call/Siren.

 

[CrownVic97]

Those are the late model Magnum sirens. I have the Magnum IV B. It sounds like a cross between an early 1980s Southern VP SA400 and a General Electric Power-Call/Siren.

Couple of videos to demo what Wailer said. And he's right! They sound really damn good!

 

[Wailer]

I also have an early Magnum IV like the second one in that video. I love that slow 'wah wah wah' yelp.