ON October 1, Simon Topman, chief executive of Acme Whistle Company, gave a talk on the history of whistles.

He regaled the audience with stories, many humorous, told with a variety of accents, perfect timing and all beautifully illustrated by the playing of a large variety of whistles, ranging from the large Lion Roarer down to the high frequency dog whistle, which was heard after he lowered its frequency.

In the film Titanic ,Kate Winslet was seen blowing the popular Acme Thunderer. This contains a ''pea'' of cork.

The firm can tell how many were sold to the owners of the doomed liner because the company has a wonderful archive of all that's gone on in its 134-year history.

It began in 1870. Joseph Hudson, a farm worker from Matlock, moved to Ladywood and rented a washroom for 1s 6d in the hope of making his fortune.

He worked in brass founding, needlemaking and may have worked in Redditch, but also made whistles.

There were other whistle manufacturers around but Hudson responded to a Metropolitan Police advertisement in 1883 for something to replace their large Victorian rattles.

He had broken his violin and its final discordant earth-shattering note inspired him to incorporate that sound into the police whistle. That violin still exists.

He had to get a loan from the Met before the whistle went into production.

Its success was largely due to the fact that interested clients could hear the whistle played over a Pall Mall Gazette telephone line.

By today it's said they have made around one billion various whistles in Birmingham and it is the whistle capital of the world.

Nowadays, it is possible to test the sound of whistles like the Acme Tornado on their internet site.

At the end of the evening, the audience was treated to the sound of a rare 1885 King's Own whistle brought in by a member. He valued it at £300 but said their Bakelite whistles were even more collectable. His talk was probably the best in recent years and most people were amazed you could get so much fun out of the topic.

On Friday, October 15, the talk will be on Dudley Castle by highly recommended Adrian Durkin, of Dudley Museum, and will take place at Trinity High School, starting promptly at 7.30pm. Visitors welcome. More details on 01386 792082.