Mike sent along a photo of his beautiful Janus Halcyon 250.
“…it’s a copy of a feather bed Norton made all by hand by the Amish out of Goshen Indiana. Funny they can produce the motorbike but not ride them, even the machinery to fabricate the motorbike has to be generator power because the Amish can not be connected to the main power grid.”
You can find out more here: https://www.janusmotorcycles.com/
(Or check out their YouTube channel… this ‘How our fenders are made‘ video, for instance. Wow!)
But I think you’ll agree the horn makes an awesome finishing touch.
Thank You Mike!
Author: John Runs This Place
We love squeeze horns! Especially the brass honkers we import from India! A labor of love. Happy Honking!
Nevada Tractor
Wolf sent along some pics of his awesome tractor in the Nevada desert. Truly a thing of beauty.
Thanks Wolf! Happy Honking!
The Nutty Proprietor
I have other bicycles! A beautiful road bike, a very fun mountain bike, a polo bike… But this is my bike party bike for group rides. I call it Sparkle. And I sure get a lot of laughs with this horn.
Happy Holidays!
Harpo Speaks!
Finally found a used copy of Harpo’s autobiography. A fun romp through early, poverty-stricken but full of get up and go New York Marx family childhood stories (Harpo was born in 1888!). Followed by years and years of pounding the pavement scratching out a living on the Vaudeville circuit. Finally a few breaks and steady theater success, and then Hollywood and the big time.
Here he details the birth of his trademark squeeze horn ( taxi horn). The show ‘Home Again’ puts this at around 1914.
Old Comments (Thanks!)
Formal Attire
Just for fun. On those special occasions when you want to make a big impression. By the way, this is a very big bike!
Fresh Inventory April 2021
A fresh shipment of beautiful horns just in. Thank you Alvin!!
Taxi Horns
Well known for its use in Gershwin’s ‘An American in Paris’, I realized today I had no idea what in fact a ‘taxi horn’ was! If you Google it you’ll just get references to Gershwin, especially since the discovery that ‘we were doing it wrong’. (See my post here.) Consider that the horns Gershwin used were NOT what you’d typically find installed on an automobile by the manufacturer. (See vintage auto ‘bulb horns’, including many from French manufacturers here.) So what were they?
I turned to Google Books, sorted by date, and looked for references to ‘taxi horns’ from the early 1900s. Gershwin wrote ‘An American in Paris’ in 1928, and the thinking behind using taxi horns in the composition was to evoke the ambience of Paris.
Here’s what I think… In the 1920s, taxi drivers, especially in France, would sound a ‘taxi horn’ when arriving to pick up their fare.
The ‘rattle of wheels’ sounds to me like it could be a carriage.
The Man Thou Gavest
By Harriet Theresa Comstock · 1917
Theatre Magazine Volume 36
Published: 1922
Publisher: Theatre Magazine Company
About now (1940) the term is becoming ambiguous. This could certainly be a taxi’s horn, rather than a ‘taxi horn’. 
But maybe you know better, or have something to add. Feel free to leave us a comment. Thanks!
Vintage Squeezehorns
Back in the day they were called bulb horns and were the standard horn on pre-war cars. Somewhere along the line they began to be called squeeze horns. This begs the question… Who was the first clown to use a squeeze horn (was it Harpo?) because nowadays they’re also referred to as clown horns.
From Bonham’s auction house! Beautiful ‘bulb horns’ from the early 1900s.
Laurel and Hardy At The Sharp & Pierce Horn Co
Reader Iguana sent this to me in a comment and it’s priceless and so worth sharing. Horns are featured starting right after the opening credits for the first 4 minutes or so.
“The G minor horn always gets them.”
34 thoughts on “Old Comments Prior to 2021”
Hi John, I am from Mumbai and we have these horns used in the autorickshaws ( tuk tuk) and the state run buses.
I have found some people making these brass horns STILL in Mumbai, perhaps these are the last of the breed but these can still be sourced here in Mumbai . Drop me a line on … and we can take ahead.
Regards
Al
Hi Al, I replied by email (took your address out of the comment so it wouldn’t be public). Thanks and excited to discuss. Best, John
I know you are still looking for a distributor. Maybe this guy who is a horn expert on the UK can help you
https://taffthehorns.com/
Very interesting, thank you. Looks like he’s mostly dealing with vintage motorcycle horns. I’m getting some great ideas for attaching brackets for bike handlebars from looking over his site. Thanks again Iguana.
Hi. John
Greetings for the day.
This side surender sethi.
Let me know ur requirements of spare rubber horn bulbs.
U order any color any quantity.
Be assured u will get in best rubber quality.
Regards
Surender sethi
Hi Sethi, I removed your email from the comment so you don’t get spammed. But I will contact you now to be in touch.
Thanks!
John
Humor – Squeeze horns have been known to cause insanity:
https://youtu.be/PeWBwbOu_b4
Oh Wow! That is fantastic. Going to make a post for it. Thank You!!
Good morning, evening, afternoon and night! I have great interest in your insightful encyclopedia of bulb horns of many! But I was wondering if you would be able to identify several of these bulb horn/noisemaker sounds. I’ve created a compilation of these sounds (Warner Bros./Looney Tunes horn sounds) that way they’ll be easy to tell apart. I’m hoping this won’t be a hassle! Do take your time. Thank you and have a great day!
The video containing the samples:
https://youtu.be/d0zhfD3lK00
1. Large squeeze horn 2. Small squeeze horn 3. Small, probably plastic squeeze horn 4.Sounds like a rubber duck squeeze toy 5. Not sure, but maybe a very small plastic squeeze horn. You can also compare to my SFX/Ringtone recordings here: https://www.squeezehorns.com/2011/squeeze-horn-sounds-and-ringtones/
Best,
John
Maybe try to get hold of the rickshaw people in India? This person seems to repair them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H42hbtnIhjA
OMG, that’s amazing and opened up to a ton of other similar vids on YT. Thanks for the link. I’ll build a post with the best of these type of Desmo Horns I can find.
They spell it many different ways.
Desmo, Deshmo, Deshmuk, Deshmukh.. Sometimes bhopu.. Maybe that will help you ask for the right things.
Hi,
Are you back to selling horns? Though they were a couple of years old, I’ve seen a few posts on your site saying that you had stopped temporarily.
I’m looking to purchase two – a 7″ brass and a 10″ double-bell brass.
I look forward to hearing from you, thank you.
Mike
I have about 20 squeeze horns that I purchased from WalMart and the horns are used on a kids barrel ride train.
the horns are made in China and are sold under the names of Bell and Kent bicycle accessories.
The plastic and brass reed valve will fail/break after a few minutes of the kids honking them.
Do you have a vendor or manufacturers that will sell replacement reed valves only?
replacing the valve would be an quick and simple fix, but the stores that I purchased the horns from tells me the have to replace the whole horn.
can you help?
Thanks,
Terry Martin
I have a horn and need a bulb, can you help, all that I see on the interweb don’t look like mine.
Hello I am looking to buy just the ball that squeezes as mine has disappeared from my horn bell. Do you know where I could purchase one? Or coul I et one from you? The opening diameter is 1 cm.
Thank you
Allexa
Sorry, I don’t just now. Also the bulb on our horns is larger than 1 cm. If you do find a source please let me know.
Tim bought a sqeeeze horn from you a year ago
How to clean the rubber bulb
It leaves your hand black!
I’m just discovering this myself. What I’m suspecting is that the second batch of horns I received included bulbs with inferior rubber quality. I’ve cleaned mine with dish washing detergent.
hope you guys are not permanently defunct… I just found you and want to do some bid’ness…
in the market for some horns (I love the silly things, too) and particularly the mounting brackets
that you’ve had made up, very cool… if someone’s still out there in the digital wasteland, and
planning to resume ops anytime soon, plz. contact me so that we may conduct some sort of
bulb horn transaction… best regards, John D…
Oh we’re back alright! Just in case anyone is wondering . I’ve asked a few recent customers if they’d care to comment or send along a photo of their horns in use. Fingers crossed they get back to me. Best, John