Not well known but prominent all the same.

Not a lot of people can claim they actually ever saw one, but the sound it makes is an integral part of the acoustic memory of all those who have watched early TV slapstick series. The gliding up or down sound made by the "American Slide Whistle" was mostly used to illustrate those scenes in which man is compelled to fly although it is not exactly second nature to him – getting thrown out of a saloon, falling off a horse (preferably in the trough, of course.)