Horny

[Keith Webb]

This must have been the horniest Chev blitz around!

[Robin Craig]

Keith,

in that photograph you posted, there are 3 horns. The right hand one as we look at it, that is rusted around the outside and bare metal in the centre, is that original to that vehicle?

Robin

[Rich Payne]

The right hand horn, with a bezel fixed by fillister screws rather than acorn nuts looks to be a military spec Lucas HF1234 'Altette'. Certainly a common fitting on British vehicles.

[Grant Bowker]

There's also an empty bracket for a 4th horn, lower right of the grill when on the vehicle). It has to be Australian (land of endless sunshine) - no one in their right mind in Canada would mount a horn exposed with the mouth pointing up to collect ice.

[Robin Craig]

Rich,

you have partly hit the nail on the head about that horn.

I have a thread running on www.hmvf.co.uk about what is the longest continuous usage of a British Military vehicle part.

This item, is one of 3 contenders that I have identified. The others being the venerable convoy light which is still used, and the red rear reflective disk that came in post war.

Currently that horn is still used on active service vehicles such as CVRT and 432 and Stormers.

It is an incredibly long time for a single part to have been used wouldnt you say?

Robin

[Rich Payne]

The original Altettes date back to 1930. As the standard Lucas horn, they probably appeared quite early on MVs. They were certainly in use by the mid-1930s.

There were various small changes over the years, particularly to the body. They seem to have changed for the final time during the early 1950s when they gained a 'corrugated' tone disc. As far as I'm aware, the motor industry replaced them with something cheaper to make during the mid-1950s.

They're certainly heavy enough to give the mounting brackets a hard time. I can imagine why this one's been welded on.