Vehicle horn of vehicle horns are used by percussionists as sound effects, or even melodically, in musical works. For example, George Gershwin's 1928 orchestral work "An American in Paris" calls for the use of 4 taxi horns. György Ligeti's opera "Le Grand Macabre" features two "Car Horn Preludes" scored for 12 bulb horns, each one tuned to a specific pitch. Klaxon is a trademark for a brand of electromechanical horn or alerting device. Mainly used on cars, trains and ships, Klaxon horns produce an easily identifiable sound, often transcribed onomatopoeiacally in English as "ahoooga." Like most mechanical horns, the klaxon has largely
Air horn or plastic horn or trumpet (called the "bell") attached to a small air chamber containing a metal reed or diaphragm in the throat of the horn. Compressed air flows from an inlet line through a narrow opening past the reed or diaphragm, causing it to vibrate, which creates sound waves. The flaring horn serves as an acoustic "transformer" to improve the transfer of sound energy from the diaphragm to the open air, making the sound louder. In most horns it also determines the pitch of the sound. When vibrated by the diaphragm, the column of air in the horn vibrates