Automobile[edit]

Modern electric horns mounted under bonnet.

Oliver Lucas of Birmingham, England developed a standard electric car horn in

1910. Automobile horns are usually electric, driven by a flat circular steel diaphragm that has
an electromagnet acting on it and is attached to a contactor that repeatedly interrupts the current to
the electromagnet. This arrangement works like a buzzer or electric bell and is commonly known as
"sounding" or "honking" one's horn. There is usually a screw to adjust the distance/tension of the
electrical contacts for best operation. A spiral exponential horn shape (sometimes called the "snail")
is cast into the body of the horn, to better match the acoustical impedance of the diaphragm with
open air, and thus more effectively transfer the sound energy. Sound levels are approximately 107
109 decibels, and current draw 56 amperes.
Horns can be used singly, but are often arranged in pairs to produce an interval consisting of two
notes, sounded together; although this only increases the sound output by 3 decibels, the use of two
differing frequencies with their beat frequenciesand missing fundamental is more perceptible than
the use of two horns of identical frequency, particularly in an environment with a high ambient noise
level. Typical frequencies of a pair of horns of this design are 500 Hz and 405420 Hz
(approximately B4 and G#4, minor third).
Some cars, and many motor scooters or motorcycles, now use a cheaper and smaller alternative
design, which, despite retaining the name "horn", abandons the actual horn ducting and instead
relies on a larger flat diaphragm to reach the required sound level. Sound levels are approximately
109112 decibels, and current draw 2.55 amperes. Again, these horns can be either single, or
arranged in pairs; typical frequencies for a pair are 420440 Hz and 340370 Hz (approximately
G#4A4 and F4F#4) for this design.

Diagram showing how a car horn works

A horn grille is a part of some designs of automobile or other motor vehicle that has an electric horn,
such as a motor scooter.
The radiators of modern cars no longer determine the shape of the grilles, which have become more
abstract, the radiator being of different proportions from the grille and over 15 centimetres behind it.
Now grilles are usually designed so the sound of a horn can readily come out through them. Those
designs that echo the shape of the grille no longer have front fenders with rather large crevices that
accommodate trumpet-shaped horns. Thus some cars, often British ones, have a pair of round horn
grilles either side of the radiator grille, with a horn behind each. A luxury car's horn grilles are usually
chrome-plated.
Cars with rear engines, such as the Volkswagen Beetle and the early Porsches, necessarily have no
radiator grilles in front, and so have horn grilles placed below their headlights. Some motor scooters
have this feature as well, placed below the handlebars. Their horn grilles may be cheap plastic.
These vehicles and the cheaper cars have only one horn.
See also: Shave and a Haircut