Utah State Hospital 8 am alarm

So every morning at 8 am an alarm goes off at the state hospital. Ever since I moved to this part of Provo (about 3 years ago), I've wondered what it was. A few months ago, I was running up by the hospital and one of the buildings started steaming. Proceeding the steam, an alarm went off. An aside: I didn't realize it was 8 am, and not expecting it to go off I jumped and almost wet my pants. My suspicion was correct. There was in fact a steam alarm going off at 8 am at the state hospital. Brian and I got online to find out why it went off but we couldn't find an answer. To put our curiosity to a rest, we emailed the superintendent to ask him about it. I am sure he has PLENTY of real work to do, but I just couldn't stand to hear the alarm another morning not knowing why it was going off. This was his reply.

"The steam is from our boiler plant. Years ago, the "horn" or whistle was sounded whenever a patient went AWOL from the hospital. In the early 1900's, it was used to alert the community. Due to the old system, it had to be sounded each day to keep the steam pipe working. It was tested each morning at 8 am. Later, when the system was upgraded, we stopped doing it. We had many complaints from the community because they liked the whistle to tell them it was 8 am. So, we decided to keep testing it. The last few years we have used it also as part of our emergency management system to alert staff of emergency (disasters). Though we have never had to actually use it we sound the whistle each day to make sure that it works.

So....to make a long story longer...we keep sounding the whistle for many purposes."

*** Just in case you were also wondering what the alarm was for, you now have an answer all because Brian and I are dorks and bothered the superintendent of Utah State Hospital with our annoying question. ***