There’s only one factory left in the country that manufactures metal whistles and it’s based on the north side of Columbus.
The American Whistle Corporation in Worthington has been producing the game-stopping gadget since 1956.
“Take one more good look around and think to yourself once again: ‘I have arrived,’” said Phil Clark, as he began leading a tour group through the facility.
He’s been making whistles here for more than a decade. A working musician, he wanted a job with some quirks.
“Since I couldn't make saxophones in Paris, it was like, well, whistles … it's the same technique just in a smaller form and you only get one note out of it,” he said.
Now, he’s one of just a few full-time factory workers who tinker in a roomful of heavy machines that churn out the ear-piercing instrument.
The machines that make a metal whistle
Clark stopped the tour group at the first of these metal monsters: a colossal contraption with giant googly eyes affixed above a mouth that chomps through sheets of brass.
“I named this press Big Junior,” Clark said. “Big because it's our largest press. It's a 40-ton press.”
Each whistle is composed of 3 separate pieces. Big Junior makes the top half, which resembles Mickey Mouse ears as it’s produced.
Next to it, another machine presses logos into the metal, then folds those ears down to form the sides of the whistle.
Clark held up a finished piece emblazoned with the word ‘COACH.’
Nearby, other pieces of equipment punch, bend and chop the bottom half of the instrument. Another creates the loop that holds it on a lanyard.
“And so all three of those pieces are soldered together,” Clark said.
Then, the whistles are dumped into a polishing machine, where they’re spun round and round and round with soap and water for hours.
“When they come out of there, they are just as clean as a…,” Clark teased the group, trailing off.
“Whistle!” someone in the audience finished.
“There you go,” Clark said. “I had to say that joke, didn't I?”
A whistle’s tell-tale trill
At this point, the whistle has a sharp, straight pitch. But it’s not quite like the classic staccato sound you hear on a basketball court.
That’s because the instrument is missing a critical component: the tiny ball that vibrates inside each time it’s blown.
“It's the trill,” Clark said, “just like you're rolling your tongue a little bit.”
Another machine blasts the tiny piece into the slot at the top of each whistle with a shot of air.
Then, once everything’s assembled, the whistles are packaged and shipped off to Walmart, Amazon and Dunham Sports stores all over the country.
“I would just imagine they're sold to any official, or a teacher, a police officer or just somebody that's really super bossy,” Clark said.
He says the American Whistle Corporation makes about 2,000 whistles a day and each one produces 126 decibels of sound.
“Which means they could be heard for over a mile,” Clark added on the tour.
So next time you hear a whistle at recess, or on the soccer field or at the swimming pool, it just might have been made in Ohio.
