Secretly Incredibly Fascinating - Car Horns

Episode Date: May 30, 2022

Alex Schmidt is joined by comedy writer/podcaster Diana McCallum (FromSuperheroes.com, host of 'Talk From Superheroes') and comedy writer Eileen O'Connell (Funny Or Die, The Pack Theater) for a look at why car horns are secretly incredibly fascinating. Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week's bonus episode.

Folks, hello, this is Alex. You're about to hear episode 96 of Secretly Incredibly Fascinating. Nine-six, we are right in the middle of the membership drive leading up to episode 100. And, very exciting news all around with that, we just hit a new goal, which is a game show tips workshop slash hangout slash storytelling time that I'm gonna run in a few weeks. Full details are over at sifpod.fun. The next goal after that is also a bunch of fun. If we hit our next goal, I'll be able to commission digital art to celebrate episode 100. And that new art is going to be of a piece with existing art just for patrons. If you sign up now, you get that art immediately. Because in the run up to episode 50, I had artist Adam Koford make a poster. I was able

to commission a poster because of your support. So it was fun digital art of characters for all 50 first episodes of the podcast. I want to rehire him for a whole new poster for episodes 51 through 100, right? Massively build out and extend the artistic character universe for the show. What I just said makes a lot more sense if you have seen the first poster and if you're a patron. So also, if you become a patron, this whole plug just makes more sense. Very fun. Less confusion. Anyway, that's the plug. I really hope we get that poster. I really hope you enjoy the first poster. And of course, enjoy episode 96. secretly incredibly fascinating. Hey there folks, welcome to a whole new podcast episode, a podcast all about why being alive is more

interesting than people think it is. My name is Alex Schmidt, and I'm not alone. My guests today are Diana McCollum and Eileen O'Connell. Diana is a returning guest from the past episode about rest areas. Diana is the co-creator of FromSuperheroes.com, and that is a whole slew of very funny internet pop culture stuff. They have the Texts from Superheroes series. They have other online material as articles and everything else. They also have podcasts, and she co-hosts a fantastic one. It's called Talk from Superheroes. It's been nominated for six Canadian podcast awards. You can search that name or follow the show links to hear talk from superheroes. And then Eileen O'Connell is a wonderful comedy writer.

You may have seen her work online at places like Funny or Die or on stage at places like the Pack Theater in LA or in actual newspapers. She's done funny work at the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune. Eileen and I are also both from Chicagoland, and so you'll hear some Chicago and Chicago area stuff come up. So glad to see her again and to have her on this one, and Diana too. Turned out great. Also, I've gathered all of our postal codes. I've used internet resources like native-land.ca to acknowledge that I recorded this on the traditional land of the Canarsie and Lenape peoples. Acknowledge Diana recorded this on the traditional land of the Haudenosaunee,

Anishinaabeg, Mississauga, and Wendat peoples. Acknowledge Eileen recorded this on the traditional land of the Gabrieline or Tongva and Keech and Chumash peoples, and acknowledge that in all of our locations, native people are very much still here. That feels worth doing on each episode. And today's episode is about car horns. Just one heads up with that topic, there will be a couple horn noises in the podcast. I will give you a warning before they come. And they're mainly there so you can get like the exact sonic quality and sonic experience of a horn. I know you know what they sound like in general, and I think it's a really fun topic for this show. Everyone knows about horns. Nobody thinks them through. So please sit back or sit in eager anticipation of funny stories

about the Awuga type of horn. Either way, here's this episode of Secretly Incredibly Fascinating with Diana McCollum and Eileen O'Connell. I'll be back after we wrap up. Talk to you then. Diana, Eileen, it is so good to have you both. And of course, I always start by asking guests their relationship to the topic or opinion of it. Either of you can start, but how do you feel about car horns? I'm stressed by them, personally. Don't like it. Don't like it when I encounter them on the road. Don't like it when I encounter it in television as a fictional car.

Stresses me out every time. Very fair. Yeah. And like TV ones. Do you do the thing that I do where the characters who are sitting in the front two seats of the car are not paying enough attention to the road? Like the driver keeps looking at the other person for long chunks of time to talk to them. And then I feel like they're going to get in the wreck. Cool.

That weighs on me. Every time they shoot a scene like that, I should get over it, but I don't. But yeah, stress from horns. That makes sense to me. Yeah. I got to say, I think they are the worst horn, easily. They're easily the worst horn. There's a scale of horns, okay?

You got bike horns, or these cute little guys guys and they're like oh excuse me i'm very small you didn't see me but i'm coming yeah you got like train horns and trains are like i'm huge i can't stop i'm like you you need a horn choo-choo choo-choo because you can't stop and then cars are just like yeah we see you stop it just stop beeping at us you're all the same size you're everywhere you're loud and i have very little personal connection with horns i actually think this is very funny what you keep having me on for alex because i don't go in cars so i don't go to rest stops which was my first episode i don't go in cars i don't have a license so i have very little attachment but i know they're loud and i don't like them that's a good outsider perspective i'm i'm from the outside looking in the car yeah because going into bed i was like horns are

definitely the most invasive part of other people driving if you are not driving at all so i wonder how diana feels about that because that has to bleed in we none of us escape this feature of the car i also think as people who podcast you you're just like, please be quiet out there. Please. You definitely don't need to be doing this. I'm trying to be alone with my thoughts for the one period of time that I'm allotted and you're honking at me. Right. My solitude slash having fun with folks.

It's both. I'm trying to cry. And this is impeding my therapeutic tears. So they're an invasive species, I'd say. Yeah, I get that. So I live in Brooklyn now. And also, we held on to our car from North Carolina. So we still drive.

We're not just subway people. But I find that Northeastern US driving is the worst and chaotic and constant horn honking. And then when we were in L.A., I felt like everybody was a professional. Everybody had a reason for the crazy move they were doing. The honking was rare and infrequent and warranted. It was great. Maybe that's too rosy, but that was how I felt about it. I would say since COVID, it's gotten worse in L.A LA as far as, I mean, just in general in life also, obviously,

but also the honking situation and the driving situation has gotten worse because people, their driving abilities was already very questionable. Therefore, their horn abilities is also questionable and they kind of forgot what little they knew from like being inside so much so it just got way worse i imagine there was also like a brief time in covid we're like we all stopped going places so there were fewer cars and now i imagine drivers are mad that there's a lot of cars again yeah that's exactly it if i'm from an outsider's perspective thank you for your outsider perspective looking Looking in. Just looking at the numbers and the stats, which I'm sure we'll get from that. Yeah, right. Was less cars, now more cars, if you look at this chart I've made.

So it's low, now it's high. So people are mad. And they beep the little beepy. It is because they're so conversational like none of the sources I found were like solid enough to talk about but I found a few articles online that talked about like the language of car horns and it was like it was

silly but it was all like two little beeps means hey buddy you know and then like laying on the horn as you're mad you know and it is I like it as a verbal thing. And I hadn't thought of it as something along with the whole rest of language and socializing that got a little bit harder with COVID. It totally is like a little like a little beep beep. It's like, hey, the light just turned green and you're either looking at your phone or you're grabbing an Altoid. But like a honk is like, hey, I hate you

and your family and your ancestors and I hate your car. A two little beeps is kind of cute. You're right. It is kind of just like I'm here to pick you up. Beep beep. I'm up front. And you're kind of like, oh, they're here. Beep beep. It's like in

the song Aaron's Party where it's like, beep beep, have a good time of course we all know aaron's party we all listen to aaron carter when we were getting our braces tied into 2002 this was an aaron carter one i'm i'm more prone to the one where he beat shack at basketball myself oh yeah yeah that's classic aaron carter had a illustrious young an illustrious young child. An illustrious career singing about himself, mostly, which I admire. He taught me to be my own advocate. I'm very excited. I'm hoping Alex is going to tell us who created Carhorns so we can not like that person.

Oh, yeah, please. When we get into stuff. Yeah, I pretty much found out. There's not a one definite, definite inventor, but there's a couple key people, yeah. And there's an extremely specific era. I think we can start to get into that stuff. And on every episode, our first fascinating thing about the topic is a quick set of fascinating numbers and statistics. This week, that's in a segment called mean mode median different ways to estimate your

distributions if your stats are problems then i have solutions view the chart below for volume and dilution mean mode and median oh my god let me know what you're doing here in this podcast there are three of us and now there's four, including you. Guys, huge special guests. God, what a find. It's very kind of you. This is a little bit of Despacito from Mitch Vega. Thank you for submitting that, Mitch. We have a new name for this every week.

Please make him as silly and wacky and bad as possible. Submit to SifPod on Twitter or to SifPod at gmail.com. I also would definitely welcome any Encanto or other Lin-Manuel suggestions. Please. Sure. Great. I have no say in this, but I also would definitely welcome any Encanto or other Lin-Manuel suggestions. Sure. Great. I have no say in this, but I also welcome that. I love listeners getting the power to make Alex sing anything.

It's been fun. Yeah. I think I've said it on past ones, too. Like, this is not a fear factor. I hate this thing for me. It's enjoyable. Like, so keep it up. This is great.

Yeah. It's the one little joy he has in this small thing we call life. Yeah. Look, you graduate high school, you're not in the musicals anymore. You know what I mean? Like, let's keep this train rolling. You know what I mean? I have another chart here that musical numbers do drop as you leave high school.

You are in far less, as you can see. Yes. It is sad. Oh, man. Now I'm sad about how few musicals I'm in these days than I used to be. Oh, no. I was also in a lot of musicals. Guys, community theater.

That's true. Yeah. But COVID. Fair, fair, fair, fair. TikTok. Actually, TikTok, yeah. TikTok is for theater kids. Yeah, that's fair.

That's fair. Well, the first number here is a sound number. It is 110. And 110 is the standard decibel level for a car horn in the United States. And that's according to Lauren Vogelbaum of How Stuff Works. Also, that's not a legal requirement. That's just kind of what they're aiming for. Also, that's not a legal requirement.

That's just kind of what they're aiming for. But national law in the U.S. and national law in Canada is just that a road vehicle has to have a horn. And then there are state and local regulations for how loud it can be that are also pretty vague. Like, there's really not a lot of solid law in terms of how horns need to be. That makes sense. Because, like, you can hear people who have, like, custom horns. I feel like movies tell us they do. I've never actually met someone with a custom horn.

Like, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo. I'm not good at horns. I think you're great at horns. I want that to be my horn. Diana, get out of your custom vehicle. We need to start taping the podcast. Get back here. I will not get out.

I have a microphone in here. Anyway, 110. How loud is that? Is that like leaf blower loud, I feel? I ended up comparing it to long, long ago. I did an episode about emergency sirens. And apparently most emergency sirens are in that same range. They're 110 to 120.

That don't seem like it should be fair. I think an emergency siren should be louder than your car horn. I don't think you should be at the same rate as the ambulance. No, I'm not nearly as important. Nyalantra isn't out saving lives. Right. If it was, you get the better horn. Thank you.

Yes. Because also with custom horns, when I lived in the west side of L.A., I would just, when we moved into the place, I started to hear a custom horn that was La Cucaracha. Like it's La Cucaracha. I think that's what I was trying to do earlier. Oh, really? There you go. And after like the fifth or sixth time, I started making a point of running outside to try to see what it was.

And it was like a fruit delivery truck. So there was a regular La Cucaracha horn on my street to go to the corner store there. It was great. Really liked it. So like how an ice cream truck kind of has a, that's not a horn. That's just music they're playing, I guess. Yeah. It's like this guy made the choice of like, I've parked to deliver the fruit.

Hit the horn. La cucaracha. That was his deal. Fruit's here. La cucaracha. Yeah. And because it's like siren loud, I always heard it from my place. I couldn't get away from it.

What's nice about that is you know that it's not an ambulance. Same level as the ambulance, but it's La Cucaracha, so you're like, I'm pretty sure we're safe. It'd be very inappropriate if that was the ambulance. Yeah, boy. She's not breathing! La Cucaracha, La Cucaracha. It might be a good way to revive me specifically, I'd say.

If I was unconscious and they were like, we got to wake her up, hit the horn, I'd be like, la cucaracha. I'm awake, I'm awake, ha, ha, I'm alive. This can give anyone a pulse and their feet start to happen, you know? Yeah, sure. I get it.

Positive thoughts, guys. We're going to say yes and to the world with our ambulance horns. And in terms of loudness, the next number here, next number is 200 feet. And 200 feet is about 60 meters. That's a common legal guideline for U.S. horn volume. You're supposed to be able to hear it from about 200 feet away. And CarAndDriver.com says California and a bunch

of other states have that general guideline. And then also turns out in Canada, British Columbia has a guideline of 60 meters away. Some other provinces have something similar. But also most of those laws have that general hear it from this far guideline and then also have language about if the horn is too loud, if the horn is too irritating, that's not allowed. They're basically trying to give local authorities as much wiggle room as possible to tell someone to stop having a dumb horn, I think. That makes sense. So like, officer, I need it. You're like, you don't need that horn. They should have to give you a better, a different horn i think that makes sense all right so like officer i need it you're like you don't need that horn they should have to give you a better a different horn if they don't like your horn i like that they should have to carry a standard horn and be like sorry la cucaracha

here you go no that would be terrible no don't give them that power i retract this all i they shouldn't be able to take the la cucaracha horn. Yeah, it's like when businesses or transits say, we do have masks, so you have to wear one. Like, we do have horns. You have to stop being weird. You have to take a normal horn, please. Well, what's funny about this is, I apologize because we're not supposed to do research, but I did a quick thing because I'm like, what are horns legally for in your car? What do you need?

So I looked up a driver's manual. I looked up the word horn, and it's not in there. There's no point in your driver's ed manual training when they're like, this is when you use the horn. Huh. Huh. Yeah. Yeah. Now I'm trying to remember Illinois driver said, and if we talked about it.

I don't think we did. I found one driver's manual that said you have to use it if you have a motorcycle, because people can't see you because you're little. And then another one that said you have to use it if you're a tractor trailer, because you're big and you can't see, so you've got to beep a lot. So if you can't see, either way. If you can't see or if you can't be seen, beep beep. Have a good time. But if you're medium

sized i could not find a manual that was like this is when you use the horn wow so i don't know why it matters what the sound level is if you never legally need it i think i just learned socially like i don't think there was a part of the test that said do honking i don't think there was training from my gym teacher who was the driver's ed teacher. But I remember at some point learning that the horn is not just rude. It's for letting people know they're about to hit you. It's a useful signaling device. But when I was a kid, I just thought horns were rude, period.

And now I get it. Oh, you just thought they were rude. There was no happy beeps? No toot toot? Yeah, maybe. Toot toot! Ricky, the best sounds. I love it.

Stop encouraging my horn. It's so bad. No, they're great! Yeah. We're going to get a local radio-style soundboard going by the end of this. It's going to be amazing. Of different homemade horns we can do.

I hope I accidentally swear later and you beat me out with one of my own horns. Show her. She's great at horns. So anyway, there doesn't appear to be a time where you're legally supposed to, but definitely socially. You don't want to get hit by another car. You want them to move when there's a green. And it's like fully illegal to not have one. Like the law says you absolutely have to have one.

But then all the manuals and training are like, you'll figure it out. You'll understand. That's what's weird, right? You legally have to have one and there's no time when you legally need to use one yeah and it's just like this will come up you'll figure speaking of sound the next number here is 1930 the year 1930 that's no it's such a bad year wait no i think that's like between the world wars yeah everyone had just lost all their money oh well oh see i'm thinking like you're between the world wars though but yeah money's good too

you want money you need to have peace or money you can't have both yeah that's right why You can't have both. Yeah, that's right. Why can't we have both? Well, now I'm going to guess we also have car horns. Yeah, so they already had car horns, which we'll talk about. But 1930 is when car radios first became a relatively common feature. According to the Globe and Mail, there were precursors in the 1920s. They think the very first car radio was a custom job in Australia.

But in 1930, the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation sold the first mass-market car radio. It cost about the quarter of the price of a car to get one added, specifically a Ford Model A, so a cheaper car. And when car radios were on the way, one of the first reactions to them was, this is unsafe because people won't be able to hear car horns. Like they'll have their music up too loud and it'll interfere with car horns. We'll link a Lapham's Quarterly excerpt of a 1930 New York Times story where a local official said, music will make people miss a car horn sound and die in an accident so no radios we showed them so was there a lot of like did music back then have a lot of car horn sounds in it like i feel

like it's two very different sounds. Probably less, right? I don't think the pop hits of 1930s were like, here's my car horn remix. I think there's one Gershwin song that has it. But I mainly think of interstitial sound effects in rap music. Or Aaron Carter, I guess. Having the car horn. Or commercials. Like commercials.

Commercials love it. Yeah, on the radio. We love car horns. It's like if it's like an accident attorney, call this. Beep, beep. I'm that old person who always thinks I'm being honked at. I'm like, oh, no, that was the commercial. Yeah.

Oh, they still get you, huh? They do. I feel like in the 1930s, it would be more like radio serials because they do all the sound effects in the shows. Oh, yeah. Because they didn't have TV yet. So you're probably like listening to your shows back in the day in your car. Listening to a Superman podcast, basically. and do a Superman podcast, basically.

Local officials are like, drivers will think they're pursued by the shadow, so we can't have radios. Forget it. The shadow will distract them. That's amazing. Oh, no, the gray ghost, and you swerve. Oops.

Yeah, this was a whole fear. And then next number is 2021. Famous year, 2021. I remember that year. Yeah. Also bad. Not great, no. 2021 is when India's Minister for Transportation for the whole country publicly suggested replacing Indian car horns

with devices that make a musical instrument sound, like a pleasant musical instrument noise instead of a car horn. All right, so we're all going to look at Kukuracha in India. But even like not just tunes, this is this was Minister Nitin Gadkari. He was presiding over a highway inauguration ceremony last October in 2021. And he said that he was, quote, studying this and planning soon to make a law that all vehicle horns should produce pleasant sounds like those of the flute, tabla, violin, mouth organ, and harmonium, end quote. I want a guitar riff. It's got to be soothing. No. It's got to be soothing. No, it's got to be soothing guitar riffs. I want everyone on the road to know that I'm really cool.

I want the Power Rangers guitar riff solo. Yeah. Just in your car, like like eileen is driving like just really getting into it you know yeah that's great yeah go go eileen yeah i mean i actually i genuinely love this and think it should happen, though. Like, because it is impossible to have road rage if your horn is a flute. Yeah. I'm just going to throw that up there. You want to be mad at someone and you want to make more anger in the world, but your

horn's a flute. So, sorry. It's impossible. Can't stay mad. Yeah. It's not even in the family of, like, French horn or trumpet. You know, it's not even in the musical horns. It's the woodwinds. It's a wind instrument. Yeah. It's just your in the family of French horn or trumpet. It's not even in the musical horns. It's the woodwinds.

It's a wind instrument. Yeah. It's just your breath in a tube. That's all it is. And also, this guy also said he wanted to do away with police and ambulance sirens and make them more agreeable, do a different sound there. But I can't find any information on this getting drafted as a law or getting any traction or anything. So I think it didn't go anywhere.

But he definitely publicly did an announcement where he was like, while we're opening this highway, let me just say, horns, forget it. Do something else. I actually feel like there's a scientific basis for this, though, because we did a pilot project similar here in Toronto. And it was there was like a study that said people will do less crimes and be less angry when like classical music is playing. And so there's constantly classical music playing at one of the subway stops here in Toronto. And there's like never been a crime there since then. Like no one will rob you if like Beethoven is playing because it's too classy, kind of like it makes you the vibes are off.

Oh, my God. Like gas stations in L.A. that play classical music. And now I'm wondering if that is why that I just thought I was fancy in Burbank. I'm guessing that it's absolutely the reason. But Burbank, you know, classically fancy. Yeah. Yes. I take all the credit. you know classically fancy yeah yes i take all the credit so yeah i think if you're if your horn can only make nice sounds it does like lower anger levels it keeps people from being jerks i i have sort of kind of experienced it with our car is specifically a honda fit which is a small car, and the horn is not angry. Like, I can't use the horn to really express anger. Like, I can lean on it for a long time, but I know it won't floor anybody.

And so I think it reduces the amount that I want to use it for, like, fury, you know? Yeah, that makes sense. Knowing you will install no fear in someone with your horn will be like, you're going to sound like Diana's voice if you use your horn. Just give me a beep. Got another one. I'm going to sound like... And the next number here is easy to remember.

It's zero. Got zero. That is the number of horns in a NASCAR racing vehicle. I guess that makes sense. Yeah. It turns out that... They're not stuck in traffic. Traffic's always moving.

That's true, yeah. But also I feel like horns are to be like, I want to pass you, but they all want to pass. They would just be honking it the whole time. It would be too loud, frankly. I want a nice quiet nascar rates like they're like they're all surprised the road's busy like how is everybody out here at the same time that's weird like they like they were born yesterday it's like we all left the house at the same time it's so weird yeah are they allowed to have a horn because if you're one guy with a horn

that's gonna mess everyone up. That's an interesting question. I'm not sure if there's any rules about it. What I read said that they mainly don't have horns for the reason we just said, why? And then also it would be extra weight if they put a horn in the car. And these stock cars are so NASA-style cut down to the absolute essentials. Yeah, they don't even have doors that open, right? You have to go in through a window or something.

I don't know a lot about NASCAR. I think you're right. Yeah, it's missing. I just sometimes observe things quietly and then remember them for later in podcasts. But yeah, they do a move into it because it is truly missing all the basic car amenities because that could weigh one more gram or whatever so forget it i also doubt they could hear because they have like headphones and a helmet on don't they or i could also be wrong yeah they do yeah they do and also this is i was looking at fansited.com for some of this

apparently another another reason they don't have horns is they will bump each other if they want to pass or or want to mess with the other guy so like unlike our regular driving they'll just run into each other's fenders in a in a signaling way maybe get a horn yeah be safer maybe just you know what i'm coming back around if that's the alternative a little bump when you're going 500 miles per hour or however fast you're going that also it could those cars are so covered in ads the horn could be another sponsorship like it just shouts a brand name yeah m&ms m&ms m&ms m&ms just try to get around just making the other driver hungry like and uh there's one more number here before the takeaways the next number is

2021 we're back to that year oh we're back're back to that. Oh, my God. Jumping everywhere. That is the most recent guidance I could find for whether you should honk your car horn at a bear. Oh. If you're driving, if a bear is approaching your car. Is the bear alone or is the bear also driving a car? And is it a regular car or a NASCAR? You really got to break all these down. The bear's horn is just like salmon, berries, salmon, berries. Sleep, sleep, sleep.

Bear products. Sleep. Honey, honey, honey. Oh, honey's a good one. Yeah, yeah. Do we beep the bear? So, yeah, this is National Geographic. They did a piece last year, which we'll link, and it's about the general practice of how to go to a U.S. national park and see the big, cool animals without leaving your car.

Like, what are the spots you can drive through and see bison and elk and stuff? car? Like what are the spots you can drive through and see bison and elk and stuff? And they talked to National Park Service public affairs specialist Kathy Cupper. She said that if a bear approaches or touches your car, quote, it is recommended to honk the horn and safely drive away to discourage this behavior, end quote. So you should honk at a bear. You don't like stay silent and play dad or something. You try to scare it away. I love this. Add it to the driver's manuals. One official time you're supposed to use your horn.

Yes. Excellent. Vindicated. That's kind of the most useful horn guidance I've ever received versus my driving education. Yeah, sure. I like that it's a hard yes. Yeah, do it. it beep at the bear and they also if if you want to see bears from the road they say grand teton national park in

wyoming that's the best u.s national park so the three of us we slide into a nascar drive there fast and then we're gonna check it out yeah what a i mean we're gonna need a minute i'm in canada you guys i gotta cross some borders and i also have my own bears not to brag but okay wow we got bears up here so i was genuinely listening for actual advice i've seen them and I'll see more. All right. Off of that, we're going to a short break, followed by the big takeaways. See you in a sec.

I'm Jesse Thorne. I just don't want to leave a mess. This week on Bullseye, Dan Aykroyd talks to me about the Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, and his very detailed plans about how he'll spend his afterlife. I think I'm going to roam in a few places, yes. I'm going to manifest and roam. All that and more on the next Bullseye from MaximumFun.org and NPR. Hello, teachers and faculty. This is Janet Varney. I'm here to remind you that listening to my podcast, The JV Club with Janet Varney, is part of the curriculum for the school year. Learning about the teenage years of such guests as Alison Brie, Vicki Peterson, John Hodgman, and so many more is a valuable and enriching experience. One you have no choice but to embrace because, yes, listening is mandatory.

choice but to embrace because yes, listening is mandatory. The JV Club with Janet Varney is available every Thursday on Maximum Fun or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you. And remember, no running in the halls. Linda, and there's one more number straight into the first takeaway. Yet another year, it is 1908. and 1908 is the year when inventor miller reese hutchison patented a device called the klaxon and that brings us into takeaway number one the klaxon was one of the first popular car horns before it became an alarm system and a sound effect i don't know if everybody knows a klaxon noise. It's that, like, awooga, like that.

That funny, you know. Now we're talking. Can I get that one more time, Alex? Oh, you mean awooga, you know? Okay, the sound of being sexually harassed is the sound of the klaxon. I thought it was like the sound of seeing a hunk. Yeah. Yeah.

That's the sound. Right. Hello, nurse. Hummin' a hummin' a hummin' a hummin' a. Oh, no, it's running out of gas. The cars just made that sound at first, okay. Yeah, as longtime listeners know, I'm a wolf wearing a suit and a hat and walking on my hind legs. And yeah.

All checks out. I'm so glad that you didn't get the sounds before we started. Like you said, this is way better. Because also this sounds. Also, I knew what you meant exactly also this sound. Also, I did. I knew what you meant exactly. Well done. Oh, yeah, because it's like it stayed with us as a comedy sound effect and then separately as an alarm system, especially for like submarines.

But for multiple decades, it was one of the main car horns. And with with this particular sound, I did find an example and maybe I'll cut it in here. I'll see how loud it is. but the example I found was so loud. I think it might be like really unpleasant for the listener. So if I found it, if I got a pleasant level of it, you will hear it here. And great. You might have heard it. I don't know. Because it's really loud, it turns out. But that was how they used to be.

So it was really loud. It was really long. It was a little harassing. And people were worried they wouldn't hear this over a radio a few years later. That's part of what's wild about that fear. Yeah. Seems intrusive. Society had the craziest car horns.

And they were like, how will they hear it over a piano on the radio? I think they'll hear it. And yeah, there's a couple sources for this section. There's a How Stuff Works video by Lauren Vogelbach. A Technology Connections video by Alec Watson. A piece for Car and Driver by Nick Kershevsky, and then a book, it's just called Car, but it's by Gregory Votolato, who's a lecturer at the Victoria and Albert Museum and teaches design. This is sort of the origin of all car horns,

including the klaxon. A few wealthy- I love the way you're pronouncing this, the klaxon, like there's also a klax off yeah and i didn't look up any clips of anyone saying it i think that's how it's pronounced but maybe i'm doing it crazy i just i feel like it's like a softer x like a klaxon but but i like klaxon yeah i want to make it like a little more elegant and be like, klaxon. Oh, klaxon. I quickly Googled and Google had a little pronunciation thing. It is definitely klaxon. I've been saying it strange for my entire life. Thank you for checking.

I was genuinely enamored. I'm not going to lie. Klaxon has been me on the streets all the time. You just put it on your Chicago accent. That's just how we say it in the Midwest. Me and Eileen, we're going to go to Portillo's later. We're going to say Klaxon to people. And it's going to be great.

And they're going to be like, what is that? And then they'll be like, are you number nine? Looking fine. Because they make rhymes with your numbers when you get a hot dog. I love it. Yes, I do. This is some good Chicago specifics. Yeah.

So the, and so the klaxon, I guess that's how they say it. This. No, go back to the old way. Go back to before. No, I'll get tweets. I'll get tweets. Let the, that's engagement. That's free engagement.

We all know how the socials work. Right, do stuff intentionally wrong, and then your numbers go up, yeah. That is what happens, though. That's really what happens, yeah. I used to be told, like, oh, you don't, like, put the comma in a wrong spot because people will correct it. I'll be like, okay, it's 2014. I run a nerd website. I get so many tweets, you guys.

The nerds don't like it when you make a mistake. But then they're just pawns in our quest for more engagement. It's true. So the klaxon, it's one of the two early, really popular car horns. And Car and Driver talked to Matt Anderson, who is the curator for transportation at the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan. And he says, like, early, early on in the 1880s, 1890s,s some cars had air horns like that bulb horn you squeeze and it's a little bulb you know and then i guess some of them had horns connected to the exhaust

system like it would cut into the exhaust pipe and shoot air through a noisemaker and it sounded sort of like a train whistle um but i'm measuring confetti coming out with it. I'm measuring like the sixties Batmobile for some reason, fire exhausts that make sound, but I'm always thinking of the 1960s Batmobile. So that's on me. Like the U S and Canada for the past, I don't know, 120, 130 years have generated some really funny vehicles. Good job. These countries, there are so many wacky vehicles we did.

It's the best. Like, we invent a superhero. Obviously, he has a wild and crazy car. Like, duh. That's the next step. Great. He's dressed like a bat. His car's dressed like a bat.

Of course. Yeah. Naturally. But hey, aren't bats mainly flying? Shut up. It's a car. He has a car. That's his main thing.

He's rich, and he didn't go to therapy. Yeah. He also has a plane shaped like a bat, so don't worry about it. His friend is named after a bird, but doesn't dress like a bird. Yeah. That's true. Spider-Man had a Jeep for a while in the comics. That's right.

Spider-Man had a Jeep? Yeah, I think it was just so that they could sell some plastic Jeeps. That's definitely why. Yeah, it could stick to walls as well, but it was very much like, don't you just go faster than this Jeep most of the time? He's like, I do. I do go faster than this Jeep. I'm Spider-Man. Well, and so in the start of the 1900s, most cars have batteries, so they have electrical systems. And then we really get two major car horns. In 1910, there's a British inventor named Oliver Lucas. He's credited with inventing a relatively simple electric car horn that is pretty similar to what we have today. But 1910, that was that. Two years earlier in 1908,

Miller Reese Hutchinson patents the klaxon. The name comes from the Greek language word for eye shriek. That's where they got that name. And it was a brand name for selling these klaxons to people. And a lot of cars didn't have a standard horn or gave you options as like, it's one of the accessories you pick when you're setting up, likeizing your car and a lot of people picked klaxons so a lot of like 1910s 20s 30s cars have that auga like that very funny old sounding horn because that was one of the main ones it was that or kind of a similar to the modern standard one those were the main options i can't believe that every movie that has a car that makes that sound is historically accurate that is just crazy to me yeah it's always used to such comedic effect now i want to see a really serious period piece movie that has the funny car horn sound oh

like i guess you could you could just take um before they get on the ship in titanic like when they pull up just add it in a bunch of awoogas like why not that feels right i'm gonna i'm gonna put them in at the end when they get saved when it's really sad i'm not gonna do i'm gonna put it in the middle when they have their sex scene in the car. Oh, they're in the car! You found the only car on the Titanic? A ooga! James Cameron, you thought your movie was perfect, but wait till you hear this. A ooga! Basically no moment of that movie that shouldn't have one you know i think the whole thing great

point there's there's cars in the hold draw me like one of your french girls yeah oh is that an iceberg a woman's heart is an ocean of secrets i'm billy zane i have to leave i like finding out which we all think are the pivotal moments of titanic pretty easy edit and it you know the titanic it truly is of this era there's a thing where just car buying massively spikes right after both these types of horns roll out, like Klaxon's 1908, regular horns 1910.

And according to Gregory Votolato's book, car sales truly massively spiked in the U.S. Apparently, in 1900, there were 8,000 cars registered in the U.S. And 12 years later, there were 1 million. Wow! So from 8,000 to 1 million. So basically everybody's first car purchase was in the Klaxon era. Like, it was, oh, that's a horn, sure. Like, they would just do it even though it was kind of wacky and crazy. Wow!

That's just so many so fast. So many dudes were like, I got a a wuga my way into the world yeah a lot of it's henry ford a lot of it's him rolling out the it's about to call it the iphone of cars but you know what i mean like everyone suddenly bought it and made it part of their lives but just to be able to be able to make that many in like a year is what's wild yeah not even just purchasing but they're because they're big this isn't like making a tiny little iphone that's true cars are big cars are big i don't know if you've seen a car but they're pretty big you've seen a car that's true they're gonna amaze. It's big. They're going to amaze you. It's bigger than an iPhone.

And this also, this happened in other countries too, I guess, from 1904 to 1910. So just six years, the number of British cars quadrupled. And then also his book actually says that at the turn of the century, France was the biggest car maker in the world because Ford hadn't gotten going yet. And France massively ramped up production. Like just this first decade or two of the century, everybody was like, I'm getting a car. Great. I'm getting that horn. Yeah. I guess there's a car attached to it. I just want that horn.

from the Ford Museum, he says that horns were mainly seen as a politeness item. Like you were expected to honk your horn if you were coming up to pedestrians to let them know, hey, a car is coming. So it was a like, well met, sir. Like kind of, I have a horn. A good day! Yeah.

Now that would be a great horn sound. Oh yeah. Good day! Good day! With like the jitteriness as well not even like a clean take good day like the first wax cylinder ever invented was used to record it so we can't get another take that's it that's what we got oh yeah cut print i also love the idea that a pedestrian didn't see a car in like 1908. Like there's nothing else on the road and it's loud as hell.

You did not need a politeness horn. They're just like standing there being like, is that a horse or a car? Beep beep. Like, oh, it's a car. A whoo. A whoo. Go. Good day. Yeah, nothing else in the world made noise yet back then.

Yeah. Like, it's birds and cars in 1908 i'm sorry there's no other sounds you wake up and you can hear a bird or you can hear a car yeah i actually well i'm gonna link a article an article from Untapped New York because they have like a journal account of what 1890s New York City was like. And they say it was a lot quieter on the streets because there was some horse noises and that was about it. Yeah, man. Let's go back. Or like, make it all like NASCAR. Get rid of the horns.

You know, pull them out. Clearly we don't need them. Unless you meet a bear. Unless you meet a bear. Right, for bears. Yeah. Only for bears yeah only for bears and it could be behind a little like break in case of bear glass that's who will put the

horns the horns are now bears only i'm now i'm thinking basically every car i've seen or had the horn symbol is a little bugle picture it's a picture of a trumpet kind of thing but like i wish it was a bear approaching a car like that would be amazing you look down you're like bear bear salmon salmon salmon yeah well and uh and yeah and then in the 1920s and 30s car drivers end up settling on the sort of regular electric car horn, I'll call it, the not-Glaxon one. And apparently that's pretty similar to what we have today. How Stuff Works calls it an electromechanical machine. The key, key part is a steel diaphragm, like a flat piece of steel.

And with electricity, your car makes that get a charge through it. There's a magnetic field and then the diaphragm oscillates. It moves back and forth very quickly and that creates a noise. It's pretty hard to describe as audio. I'm going to link pictures and diagrams of this, but, uh, but that basic mechanic was those sort of quote unquote, regular electric car horns and one reason that overtook klaxons is that klaxons were a diaphragm getting struck by teeth on a rotating wheel with another motor attached to it and there were just a lot more parts and so between that and the crazy noise people moved away from klaxons after a while that's why they're not on all the cars today

bring it back i'm actually embarrassed to admit this but i actually kind of always thought car horns were i had no idea they were electric powered i really thought you were just like beeping a horn like when you hold like a like a clown horn and you're like, Oh yeah. I thought you were genuinely just too many sounds. I got to pick one, but I thought you were making the horn sound like when you press a real horn. If, if you made me guess before I researched this podcast episode, I might have guessed that. Like I didn't really know yet, but it's, it's, it turns out it's primarily electrical. And also if your horn ever stops working, the chief reason is usually some kind of electrical system not coming together anymore or short circuiting or something. So as a car outsider, if your battery is dead, you have no horn?

Yeah, it should be. Because apparently other than the starter, your horn takes the most electricity out of any electric-based action that a combustion car does. Really? Yeah, according to how stuff works. Damn. That feels like when you find out an app you don't use is draining your phone, and you're like, what are you doing using all that energy in the background? How dare you?

Yeah. I assumed it was the brakes that were causing all this power. Right. Yeah, unless one of the mechanical metal parts is broken, it's an electrical thing is usually why a horn stops working. But you really think it's like one of those bike bulb horns or something if you are forced to describe it, which we're not usually. Yeah.

Maybe because, as you said also, there is a picture of a bugle on there that I could just use without electricity. So it's a misleading image. Yeah yeah it's very old-fashioned it's like it's like a civil war bugle i don't know why it's like how like if you're saving something on a modern computer it's still like a floppy like a symbol they depress like this is it what is this yeah sometimes Yeah. Sometimes we just max out on what a symbol can be. There's nothing else. We just peaked. Yeah.

And as far as old things, like klaxons are still available. And Alec Watson's video, it's a great channel. It's called Technology Connections. He demonstrates, like he shows the housing and mechanism of a regular horn and then shows a klaxon one. He tells you in the video, like, by the way, I adjusted the levels on everything because the klaxon was way louder than the rest of this stuff. It's really unpleasant. But also you can just buy one. And he said it was also the cheapest one he bought for the video because they're still available.

They still have applications, especially on submarines or for other alerts. They still have applications, especially on submarines or for other alerts. You'll hear a klaxon type sound repeatedly if a submarine is diving or surfacing. You know, most of us do not experience this, but they are still used for stuff. Yeah. Constantly on a submarine. Right. Right.

You don't drive, but. I'm a water based traveler. I don't have a car, but I have a submarine. Don't you worry. You know, also, when I say submarine, I mean like Navy ones. But coming back to Titanic, again, when they are searching underneath the water. Thank you. It all comes back to Titanic.

This could also be an application of you. Because also the, and I think I only ever saw it it written which is why i've been saying it strangely forever but i learned the word klaxon from star trek because that's what they call the alarm on the bridge of the first ship and then they're the other different sounds like they're taking it from this like military alert application of what used to be a car horn i've actually been trying to figure out why I even knew the word Klaxon and Star Trek makes a lot of sense. Cause I was, I've also I'm going on that same journey as you in my brain right now. That's why I was leaning towards Stargate though.

I think they also might have a Klaxon because they're always like gate room stuff happening. I should know this, but I don't at the top of my head. Yeah, you should know Stargate lore. I should not. My job is to know these things, people. Pluto TV. Because I've never seen Stargate, but they're in those military outfits, right?

So it's probably a military klaxon kind of thing. Makes sense. Yeah. It's very military based. I also learned the word Chevron from Stargate. They use that word a lot for some reason. Oh, for like insignia as a rank?

Yeah, but also the things on the Stargate are called Chevrons. Yeah, they'll be like Chevrons are locked. And I'm like, okay. Oh, they're so locked. They're so locked.

Whenever they get locked, I get amped. Like, the adventure's about to start when the Chevrons are locked. That reason. And the chevrons are locked. That reason. And the klaxon. Oh.

That use of chevron is like a thousand percent sillier than I expected. That's amazing. It's really fun. You gotta lock seven chevrons or the gate's not gonna open, Alex. Alex, are you paying attention, Alex? Are you writing this down? It's secretly incredibly fascinating. I don't know if you know.

And also with other loud horns, the only other thing really to say about this car horn evolution is that it's pretty separate from air horns. Because air horns are actually on a bunch of other vehicles. In particular, most trucks, most most buses most trains most like boats and lighthouses are all different kinds of air horns so a car horn is actually like a little bit unique in the big vehicle world for horns genuine question which one's louder because i kind of want to lean towards car i think the big one should be louder i would think an air horn is but i don't actually know. Yeah. And especially because air horns can be such different sizes.

Car horns are all pretty much that one little thing. Yeah. That makes sense. Trains are big. Yeah. I love that story before, too, where you're saying like kind of like a train has no choice. Of course, it's honking. Like it's just on rails.

It has no free will. A car can turn. The train is like, it takes me 20 minutes to stop. You got to move. I cannot be the one who stops in this scenario. So yeah, you better have the best horn. And everyone's like, thank you, train. You are doing your job. Yeah.

No one's ever mad at a train. Love that for trains. And there's only one other big takeaway for the main episode then we'll have bonus feature stuff about horns but here we go takeaway number two many modern car horns are made of two horns that play a musical interval go on and it's the same sources as before i until researching this like i just thought it was one sound but it turns out most car horns it's two entire separate horn devices and they are set up to play different notes in usually a minor third is there a major lift

um but okay i can't really picture what's happening. So like the sound I hear is two sounds mixed together. Yeah, and they're close enough and mixed enough that we just don't detect it really. But it's one of the reasons a horn catches our ear, that we notice it more. Here, I'll do this for people later when I edit. I'm going to put in a couple horn sounds. So if they're not around you, here comes a couple horn sounds. So nice.

Here's how the horn sounds on a 2020 Aston Martin Vantage. Pretty solid, just like I expected it to be. Let's see how the horn sounds on the G63 AMG here. Wow, that's pretty powerful. It's actually really loud. I don't know if you can hear it. Pretty solid. Great. So you heard a couple horn sounds. If you're anything like me, you heard that and it was still kind of hard to detect the two notes, but there are two notes in there. Now let's hear how the horn sounds on the 2021 Lexus LC500 convertible. Hear how the horn sounds on the 2020 Acura NSX. Pretty solid.

Love it. Folks, we'll have this link that's a YouTube channel called Omar Drives, and he does car videos. And then also, I think every time he tested a car for the entire year of 2020, he also got a little clip of what the horn is like. So if you just want to hear a series of new car horns, you can do that. Like some of them, if I'm listening really hard, I feel like I can hear an interval, but it's pretty blended.

It's not super obvious. I think the second one I was like, yeah, that's two sounds. But I never would have said that until you told me stuff. Maybe if like one sound breaks, it's like backup sounds in there. Yeah, I couldn't I couldn't find other reasons for this. But that seems like it would be one reason. Yeah, because you still have some sound coming out of your car. This is Alec Watson said that the most common interval is a minor third because it's a little bit irritating.

And that's part of what catches your ear when you hear this and that interval is also popular in the world of sirens if you've ever heard a european two-tone siren where it's like best siren yeah and i love it in like born movies and stuff you know like it's fun but uh but it turns out that is also a similar interval. And so that siren is also catching your ear the same way. Cool. I actually just also really liked that guy's attitude about horns. He was very stoked about every single one of those. And I wish I loved anything as much as that. Yeah, maybe.

I wish I was just him. I'm like looking up his, I'm like, what's this man's attire online portfolio? You know, when I put that clip in, I was going to cut out him talking. I'm going to leave it in for the couple of horns. He loves it. Omar's very happy. It makes it so much better. He's never heard a horn he didn't like.

It's so far. I only got a minute in. It's a five minute video, which is crazy. It's wild how long that video was. All of 2020. It was like, these are the horns, folks. Yeah, it's a really good attitude. Omar, I'm proud of you, wherever you are.

Me too. This is the best thing we've learned about horns today, that Omar loves them and that he's got a whole career based around horns. Excellent. I'm starting to turn around on horns now, honestly. Omar brought us all together as a society. It's great. Omar drives. i choose to believe that drives is his actual last name he was born for this yeah now i'm imagining he was

he's batman like he grew up at drives manor and like had to take on the mantle of driving batman's last name isn't Batman. Yeah, that's true. It doesn't make any sense. It would be a big giveaway. Like, hey, I figured out who this Batman guy is. Yeah, it's probably Bruce Batman. This guy's last name is Batman.

Folks, that is the main episode for this week. My thanks to Diana McCollum and Eileen O'Connell for really leaning into the noises with me, as I was. Anyway, I said that's the main episode because there is more secretly incredibly fascinating stuff available to you right now. If you support this show on Patreon.com. Patrons get a bonus show every week where we explore one obviously incredibly fascinating story related to the main episode. This week's bonus topic is the surprising future of car horns. Car horns may be going away. That's the future.

Visit SIFpod.fun for that bonus show, for a library of almost 8 dozen other bonus shows, and to back this entire podcast operation. And thank you for exploring car horns with us. Here's one more run through the big takeaways. car horns with us. Here's one more run through the big takeaways. Takeaway number one, the klaxon was one of the first popular car horns before it became an alarm system and sound effect. Takeaway number two, many modern car horns are made of two horns that play a musical interval. And then tons of bonus stuff about race cars, angry bears, air horns, and the surprisingly kind of made up laws governing car horns. Love it. Those are the takeaways. Also, please follow my guests. They're great.

Diana McCollum is the co-creator of FromSuperheroes.com, and she's the co-host of the Talk From Superheroes podcast, which is just great, funny, pop culture, enjoyable podcasting. It's been nominated for six Canadian podcast awards. That site and podcast are linked in the episode links. Diana is also at Words of Diana on Twitter. And then Eileen O'Connell is at the letter I underscore lean, L-E-A-N, at I underscore L-E-A-N. Very funny Twitter handle and very funny writer. You can follow her link tree and the rest of her links on Twitter to see all kinds of stuff she's done. I'm going to link a few highlights, but really glad to have her on the show. Just great. Many research sources this week. Here are some key ones. A lot of videos were very handy this week,

in particular a HowStuffWorks video by Lauren Vogelbach and a Technology Connections video by Alec Watson. I also leaned on a book called Car that is by Gregory Votolato. He is a lecturer at the Victoria and Albert Museum and a design teacher at the Royal College of Art in London. Find those and many more sources in this episode's links at sifpod.fun. And beyond all that, our theme music is Unbroken Unshaven by The Budos Band. Our show logo is by artist Burton Durand.

Special thanks to Chris Souza for audio mastering on this episode. Extra, extra special thanks go to our patrons. I hope you love this week's bonus show. And thank you to all our listeners. I'm thrilled to say we will be back next week with more secretly incredibly fascinating. So how about that?

Talk to you then. you