Okay, so those of you who know that an electronic siren just uses a circuit and one or more speaker horns know what I mean by "electronic siren." And those of you who know that most mechanical sirens are the kind with an air-pump-like fan with little plates on the ends of each of its blades that match up with the holes in the case so that the flow of air being sucked in gets chopped off by the blockage of the holes by those plates on the ends of the blades, know what I mean by a mechanical siren.

Mechanical sirens are more commonly still used on fire trucks, while electronic sirens are more commonly used on the police cars and ambulances of today.

Mechanical sirens tend to be louder and more piercing and more scary-sounding than electronic ones.

Tornado warnings are usually given by mechanical sirens, but some of those are still sent by electronic ones. While many of the sirens up on poles are mechanical, several pole-mounted sirens are just electronic horns, too.

Burglar alarm sirens are typically electronic.

I think I saw a TV show were I could tell that the prison-break siren was a mechanical one, and I thought, "Hmm, that's odd…. Couldn't they just use an electronic siren horn for a place like that," even though I'm more interested in mechanical sirens.

Well, so what is it? Are more prison-escape sirens of the mechanical pursuasion, or are more of them the simple electronic ones?

And if more of them are mechanical, why would they be more likely to need that kind just to warn of a prisoner who either was trying to escape or who had succeeded in escaping? Why wouldn't they figure that an electronic horn-based siren could give enough coverage and warning for prison escapes?

(When I say mechanical, I'm not including whether or not the horn spins around or not. That can be done with either kind of siren. Don't include that into the equasion.)

Will you come back and see if I have any clarifications for your answers, please?

Thanks, if so.
BTW, don't say something like, "It depends on which prison," because duh, that's why I said words like "most" and "more," rather than words like "all" or "none."
I didn't know a prison escapee could knock out an electronic horn. How? Can you tell me more, please? What are the chances of one of those being zapped by some kind of electronics zapper?

Thanks, sounds interesting so far.
(^^^ CLARIFICATION for what answerer "Confuzzed" said.)
CLARIFICATION for something Nightrider said:

Thanks for that long explanation about what happens at your prison. But I wasn't talking about wind-up sirens, of course. I was talking about the kind with a motor, which, in fact, are still very prevalent today. As I said before, you'll find those on a lot of current-model fire trucks, still. Many fire houses still have them. Brand-new mechanical sirens are being made right now.

Oh, and by the way, I didn't just see a mechanical prison siren in an old movie. Here's one in action on YouTube (if the Y! will let me supply the link to make it work, but if not, just search for "prison siren" there–especially "Chino prison siren test, which includes this particular video):

That's a mechanical siren.
(Oops, I forgot to close-quote "Chino prison siren test" there just barely. No biggie, though, of course.)

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