“It’s kind of like it hit puberty…”
You’d think that, wouldn’t you? You’d think that the Wheelock 7002 series hit puberty during the mid-1980s. Why, you may ask? Take a look at these two alarms. They are both made by Wheelock. They both have “FIRE” on the strobe. But there are a few distinct differences here… you can tell that the 7002 series essentially hit puberty with the change from 7002 (left) to 7002T (right). There’s the classic, and the updated classic, now side by side. In the original design (on loan to me from Steve Garrod), on the left, the signal was powered by 12 VDC (volts of DC current), had a smooth finish, had “FIRE” written across its strobe, had a black “sounder plate”, and had an open grille. When Wheelock updated the design to make the 7002T, it essentially “grew up”, so to speak. The 7002T (mine, and featured in the collection) operates on 24 VDC, “FIRE” on the strobe was redesigned to be a little wider and more prominent, the sounder plate is shiny now, and the grille is no longer open, and now is described by Wheelock as “vandal resistant”. My question is, who would want to vandalize a fire alarm, but we can only assume someone did, and so Wheelock updated. Still, it’s neat to see these two alarms side by side to compare these two classics (neither is still in production by Wheelock) and their features, two of the early alarms sporting strobes.
Date posted: July 23, 2001
Notes: It's funny, looking back on this quote article. I was complaining about $1.40 per gallon in 2001. Now I would love to pay $1.40 per gallon again. At the time of this writing (for the note) in September 2011, gasoline is hovering around the $3.50/gallon mark. It's also strange to see these particular signs now, since 7-Eleven no longer sells Citgo gasoline, and Texaco, along with Chevron, has ended retail operations in the mid-Atlantic region. Thus Texaco no longer exists in Staunton.