Whistle
Encyclopedia
Aerophone
An aerophone is any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by causing a body of air to vibrate, without the use of strings or membranes, and without the vibration of the instrument itself adding considerably to the sound...
, an instrument
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
which produces sound from a stream of forced air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a small slide whistle or nose flute
Nose flute
The nose flute is a popular musical instrument played in Polynesia and the Pacific Rim countries. Other versions are found in Africa, China, and India.- Hawaii :In the North Pacific, in the Hawaiian islands the nose flute was a common courting instrument...
type to a large multi-piped church organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
.
History
The whistle has its roots dating back to ancient China, where night watchmen would blow into the tops of acorns to alert the towns to invading Mongolians. In ancient Egypt two blades of the papyrus plant along the Nile river were held together in between the palms. By blowing into the palms the papyrus leaves would make a loud vibrant sound.Types of whistle
Many types exist, from small police and sports whistles (also called pea whistles), to much larger train whistleTrain whistle
A train whistle or air whistle, , is an audible signaling device on a steam locomotive used to warn that the train is approaching, and to communicate with rail workers....
s, which are steam whistle
Steam whistle
A steam whistle is a device used to produce sound with the aid of live steam, which acts as a vibrating system .- Operation :...
s specifically designed for use on locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
s and ships. Although almost all whistles have some musical character (train whistles sound a minor seventh chord
Minor seventh chord
In music, a minor seventh chord is any nondominant seventh chord where the "third" note is a minor third above the root.Most typically, minor seventh chord refers to where the "seventh" note is a minor seventh above the root...
), common whistles are not usually considered musical instrument
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
s, since they cannot play a melody, unless used as a – very shrill and loud – noise and rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
instrument. However, musical whistles exist, including various 2-octave
Octave
In music, an octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems"...
musical instruments known as tin whistle
Tin whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, English Flageolet, Scottish penny whistle, Tin Flageolet, Irish whistle and Clarke London Flageolet is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is an end blown fipple flute, putting it in the same category as the recorder, American Indian flute, and...
s (sometimes called pennywhistles or low whistles), as well as the calliope
Calliope (music)
A calliope is a musical instrument that produces sound by sending a gas, originally steam or more recently compressed air, through large whistles, originally locomotive whistles....
(an array of separately actuable steam whistles), organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
pipes and the recorder
Recorder
The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
. Pea whistles are used in jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and Latin music for rhythm, much as a percussion instrument
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
is; children often use them as a toy music instrument.
Whistle physics
The whistle works by causing the smooth flow of air to be split by a narrow blade, sometimes called a labium or windcutter, creating a turbulentTurbulence
In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is a flow regime characterized by chaotic and stochastic property changes. This includes low momentum diffusion, high momentum convection, and rapid variation of pressure and velocity in space and time...
vortex
Vortex
A vortex is a spinning, often turbulent,flow of fluid. Any spiral motion with closed streamlines is vortex flow. The motion of the fluid swirling rapidly around a center is called a vortex...
which causes the air to vibrate. By attaching a resonant
Acoustic resonance
Acoustic resonance is the tendency of an acoustic system to absorb more energy when it is forced or driven at a frequency that matches one of its own natural frequencies of vibration than it does at other frequencies....
chamber to the basic whistle, it may be tuned to a particular note and made louder. The length of the chamber typically defines the resonance frequency
Frequency
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency...
. A whistle may also contain a small light ball, usually called the pea, which rattles around inside, creating a chaotic
Chaos theory
Chaos theory is a field of study in mathematics, with applications in several disciplines including physics, economics, biology, and philosophy. Chaos theory studies the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, an effect which is popularly referred to as the...
vibrato
Vibrato
Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied .-Vibrato and...
effect that intensifies the sound. Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
bird whistles use several small balls and are half filled with water in order to reproduce the sound of a bird song
Bird song
Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs are distinguished by function from calls.-Definition:The distinction between songs and calls is based upon...
.
A steam whistle works the same way, but using steam as a source of pressure: such whistles can produce extremely high sound intensities.
Sometimes, unintentional whistles can be set up. A common one is the opened sunroof
Sunroof
An automotive sunroof is a fixed or operable opening in an automobile roof which allows light and/or fresh air to enter the passenger compartment. Sunroofs may be manually operated or motor driven, and are available in many shapes, sizes and styles...
of a car
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
: air passing over the top of the vehicle can, at certain speeds, strike the back edge of the sunroof, creating a very low frequency whistle which is resonated by the closed interior of the car. Since the sound frequency is infrasonic, around 4 Hz
Hertz
The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
, the effect is very uncomfortable for occupants, who feel the vibration rather than hear it. Such low frequencies can induce nausea
Nausea
Nausea , is a sensation of unease and discomfort in the upper stomach with an involuntary urge to vomit. It often, but not always, precedes vomiting...
, headache
Headache
A headache or cephalalgia is pain anywhere in the region of the head or neck. It can be a symptom of a number of different conditions of the head and neck. The brain tissue itself is not sensitive to pain because it lacks pain receptors. Rather, the pain is caused by disturbance of the...
, disorientation
Delirium
Delirium or acute confusional state is a common and severe neuropsychiatric syndrome with core features of acute onset and fluctuating course, attentional deficits and generalized severe disorganization of behavior...
and dizziness
Dizziness
Dizziness refers to an impairment in spatial perception and stability. The term is somewhat imprecise. It can be used to mean vertigo, presyncope, disequilibrium, or a non-specific feeling such as giddiness or foolishness....
. The effect can be prevented by opening a side window a few inches. Subsonic whistles have also been developed for use as non-lethal area-denial weapons for crowd control purposes, or to deliberately create a sense of uneasiness in an enemy.
Police whistles
Metropolitan Police Service
The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...
s inception in 1829, officers have been issued a whistle. Prior to this, police used hand rattles, with whistles only being used as musical instruments or toys. Both rattles and whistles were used to call for back-up in areas where neighborhood beats overlapped, and following their success in London, the whistle was adopted by most Police Forces in Great Britain.
J Stevens & Son
J Stevens & Son
J. Stevens & Son Was A British Company located since 1820s in London & Glasgow, Brass Founders Manufacturing Military & Railway supplies & engineers.In 1871 The company name changed to J...
& J Dixon & sons made police whistles from around the 1840s, T Yates
T Yates
T Yates was a Birmingham manufacturer of metal goods, for home, being manufactured use since early 19th century .He made whistles during the victorian era and was the leading whistle manufacturer in Britain for many years ....
made Beaufort whistles for the Liverpool Police
Merseyside Police
Merseyside Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Merseyside in North West England. The force area is 647 square kilometres with a population of around 1.5 million...
in the 1870s. The 1880s and 1890s saw police whistles made by W Dowler & Sons
W Dowler & Sons
W Dowler & Sons founded 1744 in Birmingham were a large scale manufacturer of numerous goods, notably buttons, Vesta matches, hand bells, letter balances, swords, corkscrews and whistles.- History :...
, J Hudson & Co
J Hudson & Co
J Hudson & Co was founded in the 1870s in Birmingham by Joseph Hudson and his brother James Hudson . The company became a manufacturer of whistles and is still active today as Acme Whistles. Acme is the world’s largest and most famous producer of whistles...
, J Barrall
J Barrall
- J Barrall - Whistle Manufacturer :J Barrall was a British, Birmingham-based whistle maker, active from 1886 to 1898.Little is known about him and new whistles made by him are still being discovered to this day....
, R A Walton, H A Ward
H A Ward
Henry Arthur Ward was a Birmingham whistle maker who made whistles of high quality, all rare and hard to find. He made whistles from 1889 to 1908.- History & addresses :...
and A De Courcy & Co
A De Courcy & Co
Alfred de Courcy' was a Birmingham whistle maker from 1888 to 1927, who founded the company A de Courcy & Co.He was the largest whistle maker beside J.Hudson & Co...
.
Police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
whistles fell into disuse in many countries in 1969, when early hand-held radios were brought into service. With the rise of the motor car, the whistle was no longer usefully audible in urban areas. The whistle is still used by some police forces today, and engraved ceremonial versions are sometimes presented to police officers upon occasions such as their retirement.
The police whistle was used to great comic effect in the 1962 film On The Beat, where Norman Wisdom
Norman Wisdom
Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom, OBE was an English actor, comedian and singer-songwriter best known for a series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966 featuring his hapless onscreen character Norman Pitkin...
plays a car park attendant dreaming of wanting to become a policeman, like his dad.
Industrial whistles
Industrial whistles are used for signalDistress signal
A distress signal is an internationally recognized means for obtaining help. Distress signals take the form of or are commonly made by using radio signals, displaying a visually detected item or illumination, or making an audible sound, from a distance....
ling and timekeeping both on railroad and ships, and in factories. Most of these whistles were steam powered and not standardized. Individual locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
s could be identified by their whistles. At noontime in industrial areas up into the 1950s whistles of every pitch could be heard, as each factory had a boiler and a whistle, if not full steam power.
Boats
Ships' whistles must be very loud for safety on the seas. Modern ships' whistles can be electrically or steamSteam whistle
A steam whistle is a device used to produce sound with the aid of live steam, which acts as a vibrating system .- Operation :...
driven. was originally equipped with three electric Tyfon whistles in 1932. They could be heard at least ten miles away and were tuned to 55 Hz, a low bass A note that was chosen for maximum passenger comfort despite the high sound pressure level. One of the three whistles was taken back to Kockum Sonics in Malmö
Malmö
Malmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County...
, Sweden, where it was refurbished for a new life of service aboard the RMS Queen Mary 2
RMS Queen Mary 2
RMS Queen Mary 2 is a transatlantic ocean liner. She was the first major ocean liner built since in 1969, the vessel she succeeded as flagship of the Cunard Line....
. Modern IMO
International Maritime Organization
The International Maritime Organization , formerly known as the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization , was established in Geneva in 1948, and came into force ten years later, meeting for the first time in 1959...
regulations specify ships' whistle frequencies to be in the range 70-200 Hz for vessels that are over 200 metres in length. Traditionally, the lower the frequency, the larger the ship. The Queen Mary 2, being 345 metres long, was given the lowest possible frequency (70 Hz) for her regulation whistles which means she carries both 70 Hz modern whistles and a single vintage 55 Hz whistle.
Trains
Railroads in particular used elaborate whistle codes for communication both within the trainTrain
A train is a connected series of vehicles for rail transport that move along a track to transport cargo or passengers from one place to another place. The track usually consists of two rails, but might also be a monorail or maglev guideway.Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate...
and with other trains. These methods are maintained today with motor-powered air horn
Train horn
Train horns are audible warning devices found on most diesel and electric locomotives. Their primary purpose is to alert persons and animals to the presence of a train, especially when approaching a grade crossing. They are also used for acknowledging signals given by railroad employees Train horns...
s. Trucks also use air horns, especially since they often have air brakes and so there is already a source of compressed air on board.
Train whistle
Train whistle
A train whistle or air whistle, , is an audible signaling device on a steam locomotive used to warn that the train is approaching, and to communicate with rail workers....
s generally produce three or four different frequencies at the same time to produce a non-major chord
Major chord
In music theory, a major chord is a chord having a root, a major third, and a perfect fifth. When a chord has these three notes alone, it is called a major triad...
that is distinct, loud, and low in pitch.
Sporting
Whistles are used by referees, to officiate sporting matches. The whistle was first used to stop a sports match by William Atack in a game of rugbyRugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
in New Zealand in 1884. Before that game, all referees simply used their voices to control the flow of play.
Some sports use different types of whistles, but one used around the world in many sports is the Fox 40
Fox 40
Fox 40 International Inc. is a company founded by Ron Foxcroft in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The company's main success is in the whistle industry but it also produces other equipment such as mouthguards, coaching boards, custom imprinted products, marine safety products and first aid...
whistle. The Fox 40 whistle is a pealess whistle which creates sound using air pressure only. This whistle is used at basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, field hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
, ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
, American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
, soccer football, water polo
Water polo
Water polo is a team water sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The winner of the game is the team that scores more goals. Game play involves swimming, treading water , players passing the ball while being defended by opponents, and scoring by throwing into a...
, and numerous other games, since it can be readily heard over the noise of the spectators and players.
Another whistle that is widely used for games such as touch football, rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
and rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
is called the "Thunderer 58.5", and it is made by the Acme Whistles company. This is a metal whistle containing a pea made out of cork. This one is primarily used because it makes a deep, low-pitched shrill that can sometimes be heard from hundreds of metres away.
Music
The whistle is used by a leader in samba percussion groupsBatucada
Batucada is a substyle of samba and refers to an African influenced Brazilian percussive style, usually performed by an ensemble, known as a Bateria...
to help catch the percussionists' attention. The traditional samba whistle has three tones, but as the size of the percussion section rose, pealess whistles became more popular due to their high pitch and their loud sound.
The slide whistle
Slide whistle
A slide whistle is a wind instrument consisting of a fipple like a recorder's and a tube with a piston in it. Thus it has an air reed like some woodwinds, but varies the pitch with a slide. The construction is rather like a bicycle pump...
(or swanee whistle) was a common instrument in some types of music and was popular as a musical effect in the early days of radio and television.
The tin whistle
Tin whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, English Flageolet, Scottish penny whistle, Tin Flageolet, Irish whistle and Clarke London Flageolet is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is an end blown fipple flute, putting it in the same category as the recorder, American Indian flute, and...
(or penny whistle) is a 6 holed instruments with two octave range that is also used to make music.
Pitch pipes are reed whistles used to help in tuning musical instruments and have been common since the 1850s.
During the 1990s, it was common for whistles to be employed by the audiences at rave
Rave
Rave, rave dance, and rave party are parties that originated mostly from acid house parties, which featured fast-paced electronic music and light shows. At these parties people dance and socialize to dance music played by disc jockeys and occasionally live performers...
s, allowing a level of interaction between the partygoer and the DJ. In fact, there were a series of raves during the late 1990s named "Whistle". Held at a nightclub named Shampoo in Philadelphia, the Whistle parties (raves) were held once annually, making each party a sequel to the one the year before.
Military
Whistles were used in various military engagements in the 20th century. They were used primarily to initiate a pre-set plan so that all parts (within earshot) would move simultaneously. For example, officers in the first world warWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
would sometimes blow whistles to signal all troops along a broad stretch of trench to attack at the same time.
In the Canadian Navy, the so called Bosn' whistle or Boatswain's call is still in use for ceremonial purpose on board HMCS ships. It was used in the past to command order like carry on, soup time or colors ceremony.
Others
Other whistles include bird calls, game calls, shepherd's whistles, Swiss warblers, Chinese pigeon whistles, Chinese and Japanese kite whistles, cuckoo clocks whistles, communication tube whistles, whistling kettles, whistling tops and various toy whistles.Patents and inventors
In 1868 Joseph HudsonJoseph Hudson (inventor)
Joseph Hudson was an inventor in Birmingham, England during the late 19th century andthe founder of J Hudson & Co in 1870, later to become the world largest whistle manufacturer ....
of Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, England, made the first whistle ever to be used by a football referee. New Zealand referee William Atack was the world's first to use a whistle to stop a game of sport in 1884. It was used for the first time (allegedly) at a game held at Nottingham Forest, prior to this referees used handkerchiefs to attract players' attention.
By 1884, Joseph Hudson had perfected his whistles and he released the world's most successful whistle to date, the "Acme Thunderer" (the first ever pea whistle). The whistle has been used as an alarm or attention-getting instrument by all manner of industries, sports and revellers. It continues to sell in great quantities throughout the world.