Acme Whistles is the world’s most prolific inventor and manufacturer of whistles. From humble beginnings in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham, Acme have innovated continually to hold their market leading position against less proficient imitators. The current management are firm exponent of the benefits of retaining manufacturing in Britain.
The company was founded by Joseph Hudson, a farm worker from Derbyshire, who moved to Birmingham during the Industrial Revolution and trained as a toolmaker. He converted the wash house at the side of his end-of-terrace, ‘back to back,’ house in St Marks Street into a workshop where he made many things to help increase his family’s income. His early products were snuff boxes, cork screws and whistles.
His whistle business was very small until in 1883 The London Metropolitan Police advertised for an idea to replace the policeman’s rattle (a cumbersome means of communication for the bobby on his beat’). Joseph invented a novel whistle for the purpose. It could be held in the mouth leaving the hands free a clear advantage over the rattle.
The police tested his whistle on Clapham Common and were delighted when it was clearly heard just over a mile (1.6Km) distance. They awarded a contract to kit out the whole force with Joseph’s whistles. Over the next 135 years Acme developed and patented over 40 different whistle designs. A few of their most famous are The Metropolitan Police Whistle, The Acme Thunderer, The Tornado and The Silent Dog Whistle.
Today, Acme’s modern whistles are used all over the world by sporting bodies, safety organisations and security groups including the NFL and NATO. Acme sell over 5 million whistles per year to 119 countries. They have manufactured over a billion whistles altogether from their Birmingham premises.
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